Well, it’s Sunday morning and we lost an hour. I’m sure more people missed church today than almost any other Sunday—or a few showed up at the wrong time (guilty of both myself in the past).
There is no debate that we are hard-wired to wake up with the sun and go to bed at night. Every cell in our body has a circadian clock. Getting morning sunlight in your eyes shortly after waking is one of the best ways to set your internal clock and tell your body it’s time to get moving. It also sets you up for better sleep in the evening once your clock has been properly “set.”
Despite all the recent hype around blue-blocking glasses, morning sunlight contains a high level of blue light—which is actually beneficial for your sleep/wake cycle. That’s exactly why blue light in the evening can disrupt things.
What can we expect this week from messing with the clocks?
- Car accidents will increase on the Monday following “spring forward.”
- There will be more workplace injuries tomorrow—and of higher severity than normal.
- The risk of having a heart attack goes up in the 3 days following the spring clock change. (It goes down in the fall when we move the clocks back.)
There are more effects, but you get the idea. The sensible solution would be to split the difference—set clocks on the half-hour between standard time and DST—and never change them again. Everyone wins!
A few tips to help ease the transition and avoid those problems:
- Get morning sunlight—go for a walk or do some early outdoor activity.
- Follow it with a light breakfast.
Those three things (sunlight, movement, food) send a powerful signal to your body to help reset your clock.
Go to bed a little earlier this week. Ideally you would have started that habit the week before the change, but since I’m writing this on Sunday, the advice is a bit late.
Have a great week and enjoy the later sunsets. Also, quick side note: please don’t say “the days are longer.” The days are still 24 hours long, and the total amount of daylight is exactly the same as before. All we’re doing is shifting it from before work to after work.
Dr. Jason
