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Sleepy Dog
Actual footage of us the day after spring forward.
It wasn’t all that long ago that we were gaining a precious hour of sleep on a mid-November night, relishing in a full extra hour of rest—without even trying! As the saying goes, stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Well, right now we’re Peter and, let's be honest, it sucks.
We’re on the precipice of losing that precious hour on Saturday night to Daylight Saving torturous “spring forward.” Sure, it gives us an earlier sunrise and marks the beginning of lighter, brighter days; a symbolic spring-before-spring. But we’re just wondering, other than needing an extra cup of jo Sunday morning, what are some of the short-term effects that we might experience in the days after the spring forward time change? And what can we do to combat those negative effects and ensure a restful transition to that slightly altered sun schedule?
"Human beings are quite capable of handling intermittent sleep deprivation. The problem arises for individuals who have some underlying sleep or circadian problem, such as sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, or circadian rhythm delay (night owl syndrome), or most commonly sleep deprivation from a combination of work and family obligations. For those individuals, a loss of an hour compounds their underlying poor sleep, leading to: sleepiness and inattention that can [cause] car accidents (more of them the week after the spring forward shift), as well as the cardiovascular consequences of poor sleep (heart attacks, strokes, [which we see] more of the week after spring forward as well). But for most people, we are a little more tired, a little more irritable, with a little more impatience.
"[To improve your sleep,] understand your underlying circadian rhythm and work to adjust it to better align with your life. For example, if given the opportunity, when would your brain and body most naturally fall asleep and wake up under ‘natural’ conditions (no work, school, appointments; no zoom meetings; no kids waking you up; no bed partners; no pets; nothing constraining your schedule)? … Most importantly, don’t identify when you would like to sleep, but when would you sleep.
"Some people say, 'If given the opportunity to follow my rhythm, I would best fall asleep at 2 a.m. and wake up without an alarm at 10 a.m.' Some people say 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., some 8 p.m. and 4 a.m. this is circadian diversity. You have five different people; you have five different circadian rhythms.
"Once you understand what your rhythm is, you can use light in the morning and changes in mealtimes to adjust your rhythm, so it better lines up when you are trying to do whatever it is you’re trying to do. … Melatonin is useful to advance circadian rhythms—which is what the spring forward shift does—but care needs to be taken because for some individuals, melatonin can make their sleep worse.
"Importantly, any other underlying sleep disorder needs to be addressed as well. If you snore, take care of it; [if] you move around a lot at night, look into it; [if] you have an overactive mind, cognitive behavioral therapy principles can help."
—Dr. Michael Howell, Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, and co-author of the SPI Sleep Journey app
