5 Tips to Survive Daylight Saving Time Change and Improve Your Sleep Quality

As daylight saving time approaches, people may experience some sleep difficulties before and after the time change. Dr. Yishan, a board-certified behavioral sleep medicine sleep specialist, shares five tips to help people achieve high-quality sleep and reduce the impact of daylight saving time on their sleep schedules.

Get Enough Sleep

Get enough sleep every single day from today until the time change day. No matter whether your body need 5 hours of sleep, or 8 hours of sleep, try to get what your body normally needs to feel recharged and well-rested around this time change period.

Go to bed 15min earlier

Start shifting the bedtime and rise time to 15 minutes earlier each day starting tonight, about four or five days before the time change day. This will help your body and brain to build a buffer period and slowly get used to the time change.

Eat Meals 15min Earlier

Your mealtime serves as a “time cue“ for your circadian rhythm. If you start trying to go to bed and get up a little bit earlier each day, then you should shift other daily routined activities such as mealtime earlier as well.

At the time change day: Shift the Clock 1h earlier in the afternoon

On the day of the time change, shift the clock one hour earlier in the afternoon and do all the rest of the routine based on this new clock. This can help you reduce the impact of the one-hour shift the next day.

Get enough morning sunlight

After the time change, try to get up and get out for 15 minutes of sun exposure as much as you can for several days. This can help you reset your circadian rhythm, your biological clock, to help you get used to the new clock as soon as possible. This can also help you boost your energy, reduce the chance of getting into a slump, and improve your sleep quality.

Dr. Yishan revised these tips that were recommended originially by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and many sleep experts.

In addition to these tips, there is also an ongoing debate about whether we should make daylight saving time permanent or the standard time permanent. Many sleep experts, along with the AAASM, the Sleep Foundation, and many other sleep experts, prefer keeping the standard time permanent.

Why? What are some pros and cons of daylight saving time (DST)?

Dr. Yishan interviewed Jay Pea, the founder of the nonprofit organization: Saving Standard Time. He discussed in more detail what permanent DST means for our morning light cues, our circadian rhythm, our health, and the economy.

You can watch the whole video and many other videos on our YouTube Channel, or listen to the whole interview on “Deep into Sleep“ podcast:

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