Is daylight saving time hitting you like a brick? Here’s how to cope better

Losing an hour of sleep during daylight saving time isn’t good for you, but there are ways to help you bounce back.

By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanne Brner

When it comes to health, summer timefrankly, it sucks. It’s not just that we lose an hour of sleep (which is, in itself, harmful), but every day spent on DST takes a toll on our bodies, says Emily Manoogian, a senior scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, who studies the body’s biological clocks.

“The whole time we’re switching to daylight saving time, we’re misaligning our environment with our body,” says Manoogian. “It’s not the hour’s work that makes everyone feel bad. It’s this chronic disruption that makes us worse versions of ourselves.”

Experts, including Manoogian, generally recommend trying to change your daily schedule before the clock changes to align with Daylight Saving Time, perhaps by eating a half hour earlier or going to bed 15 minutes before your usual time. But that’s just not possible for some, and others might forget time change coming. Still others may be more profoundly affected by the hour of lost sleep, in the same way that some people are less able to cope with jet lag.

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Jet lag is a good way to think about daylight saving time, says Manoogian, who is also a member of the Center for Circadian Biology at the University of California San Diego and chair of public outreach at the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. We don’t just lose an hour of sleep; our circadian system is also destabilized. The circadian system refers to all of the body’s clocks: each cell containing DNA has a clock, and each of these clocks affects each other. Our brain acts as a kind of Time Lord, using light and other sensory signals to coordinate our behavior, such as when we eat and sleep, and regulating the timing of all clocks.

Take a leap forward puts the body an hour late. “You’re forcing your body to do things it’s not ready to do yet,” says Manoogian. Eat breakfast: Several days after daylight saving time takes effect, your glucose regulation may be compromised because your body’s clocks detect that you are fasting and still sleeping when you are, in fact, awake. If you eat early, your blood sugar levels may rise more than usual. Cortisol, the brain hormone that naturally wakes you up, can also peak after you get up, so you might feel moody and stressed before this hormone kicks in.

Confused thoughts and poor food choices are also common reactions to the time change, she says. For people who feel a little down in the days after daylight saving time, making sure to get outside, preferably in the sun, exercise, and go to bed earlier for a week or so can help combat some of these ill effects. Sleep in if you can, she says, and don’t force yourself to do anything too strenuous in the morning for a few days. “Don’t push yourself too much,” she emphasizes.

Getting our body’s clocks out of sync can be deadly, Manoogian says. “One of the most common things we see during daylight saving time is an increase in cardiac events,” she explains. Some research has noted an increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes in the days after the clocks move forward, perhaps due to cortisol misalignment. For people who are already at higher risk, “that misalignment and forcing your body to do something before it’s ready can be enough to tip it over the edge,” she says. Lack of sleep can also lead to more car accidents.

Ultimately, the body needs a few days to catch up to the time change. Early risers who are already used to waking up early might have an easier time adjusting than night owls, Manoogian says. Different parts of the body tend to make this change at different speeds, she says: the brain and other vital organs such as the heart tend to catch up with the new time more quickly than non-vital organs and tissues, including the muscles and intestines.

Food plays an important role in this process, she says: “It may also be a good time to reevaluate when you should eat, as many of us eat too early or too late.” » Giving yourself an hour after waking up before eating and a few hours to digest before bed can help regulate your circadian rhythms. Of course, people who have to stick to a schedule, especially school-aged children, don’t have the luxury of taking their time in the morning.

Unfortunately for all of us forced to switch to daylight saving time, there are no documented health benefits of the time change, Manoogian says. “All the time we’re working on it, we’re hurting ourselves a little bit, and it’s affecting some groups more than others,” she says.