Tips for Surviving Daylight Saving Time
ABC NEWS– If you’re dreading the start of Daylight Saving Time this weekend, here are a few tips from experts on how to ease into your new schedule without wanting to break your alarm clock.
Eat Dinner Early
Our sleep cycle is impacted by our appetite, so try eating earlier if you want extra shut-eye before the start of Daylight Saving Time.
Dr. Alcibiades Rodriguez, assistant professor in the Neurology Department at the New York University Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center-Sleep Center, said finishing dinner an hour earlier than normal will help prime you to expect bed earlier.
“We have a circadian rhythm [that] is coinciding with the time we eat,” he explained. “We need to coincide our sleep pattern with our eating pattern.”
Use a Light Box to Ease Into the Day
Shifting an hour will mean more light at the end of the day, but also waking up when it’s a little darker outside. Rodriguez explained that sunlight primes the body to wake up.
“It’s going to be more difficult for people to wake up,” Rodriguez said of the days immediately after Daylight Saving starts.
People who have extreme difficulty getting out of bed can try a specially designed alarm that slowly brightens as you wake up, Rodriguez said, noting it can help mimic the feeling that it’s daylight outside.
