Hey team, this week we’re going to be talking about the upcoming change to Daylight Saving Time in the US - but don’t worry, if you’re not one of those places that experience a spring time switch, there is still going to be a lot of great stuff we cover in this episode.
Our natural sleeping and wake times are controlled by our circadian rhythm and so we’re going to be discussing that in some detail as well as what we can do to help get ready for the time change so that it doesn’t hit us like a ton of bricks.
Changing our clocks for Daylight Saving Time is something that we do twice a year here in the United States to try and help people get the most out of their days - and of course we still have the same amount of daylight during the day, but many people really value having those extra hours of sunlight in the afternoon. And the US isn’t the only place that observes the clock changes, about 70 countries worldwide have similar clock changes with their own starts and stops to the tradition.
And there is some good evidence to support the adoption of the time change, some studies have found that DST lowers car accident rates due to the increased light when people are out driving (although there are conflicting studies about this pointing in an increase in fatal car accidents).
Having more light in the afternoon also encourages people to be outside more - personally I’m going to be one of those people since the ultimate frisbee team I’m looking to play with only starts practice once we change the clocks and have that extra time in the afternoon.
But of course changing the clocks does have a number of negatives associated with it, especially right after the change when our bodies haven’t adjusted to the time change yet. Our sleeping patterns our determined by our circadian rhythm and that doesn’t really care what the clock says. And even a single hour of disruption to our circadian rhythm can greatly impact our health. One study found that following the DST time change that we see a 10% increase in heart attacks on that Monday and Tuesday.
And with ADHD many of us already have a great deal of trouble with our sleep and so this disruption can severely effect us.
Just as a side note before we get into what we should be doing, we did see some headway in the US in our policy on US with the Senate approving a bill that would make DST permant year round. However, that was passed last year and hasn’t been to the House yet so I wouldn’t hold my breath on that getting new traction anytime soon.
So what we want to look at now is how are we going to get ready for the time change - and I also want to point out that we can use these for time changes beyond the DST switch. If we’re changing jobs we may need to adjust our schedules or if we’re just traveling we may want to adjust to a different time zone.
The most straightforward thing we can do is start working on shifting our schedule before the time change. For the upcoming time change in the US we are going to be “springing forward,” although that metaphor has always left me still unsure of exactly what the clocks are going to be doing - in fact even for this episode I spent quite a bit of time trying to work out precisely was going to happen with our clocks.
In the US the change is to occur at 2:00 AM on March 12th - and this is when Daylight Saving Time begins and we will go back to Standard Time in November - and what we are doing is moving our clocks forward an hour, essentially losing that hour. This means that when the clocks hit 2 AM that Sunday morning, they are going to go straight to 3AM and this means that if you we’re typically going to wake up at 7 AM when you’re alarm goes off it’s going to feel like 6 AM.
And I want to be clear, I’m mostly spelling this out for my own benefit - I’m 37, and I still get confused by this every year.
Now the importance of how this works is that we can use this information to try and work on shifting our internal clocks forward so that by the time the shift happens and we’re waking up at 7 AM, our bodies have adjusted, and so it already feels like 7 AM to us.
And we can do the same time adjustments we were doing early to figure out how we want to move our bedtimes. So if we’re typically going to bed at 11 PM then we want to work towards shifting that bedtime towards 10 PM. And the idea here is that we can work on making this a more gradual shift from the stark hour difference we get on Sunday morning.
And the thing is, we’re going to need that period of adjustment either way, just because the clocks change doesn’t mean that our bodies are going to follow along happily. By gradually doing ahead of time we get to ease our way into the change and we get to do it on our terms.
Now with that said, I know that with ADHD, bedtime is already a struggle for many of us, the idea that we’re just going to go to bed early seems like it might be aspirational at best. So I’m going to also suggest we work on something perhaps even more (bad word), which is focusing on waking up earlier. Yeah, I knew you weren’t going to like - I mean I don’t like it either. But I do know I have far better control over when my alarm for waking up is than I do over when I’m falling asleep.
Of course, this doesn’t mean we should entirely drop the idea of heading to bed earlier. Over the last few years I’ve actually been able to keep a fairly consistent bedtime and while it isn’t always easy there are things that are helpful for making this happen.
This first is having a consistent bedtime routine in how I’m getting ready for bed - but a key to this as well is that I’m not waiting for myself to get tired to start this routine. Yes, we absolutely should be going to bed tired - getting in bed when we’re not ready to sleep is not a good way for us to try and fall asleep earlier - I spent too many nights just staring at the ceiling wishing I could fall asleep to believe that. But the bedtime routine is what helps get me ready to go to sleep and that routine is what is going to help me get to the place where I am sleep and ready to fall asleep.
And my bedtime routine isn’t anything fancy - it starts with me taking my dogs out one last time and checking that all might lights are off and then heading upstairs for the rest of the evening. Once I’m upstairs and have checked on my kids it’s then a doing all the things that get me ready for sleep. The first of which is setting my phone down for the evening.
Now we could talk about blue light and its potential effect on sleep here, but the bigger key to this is that our devices tend to get us amped up. Social media in particular is the biggest offender here and a big part of that comes from the algorithms trying to keep us engaged. Nice calm sleepy stuff isn’t going to get you to stay on the platforms and I can’t think of any time where I saw something online before bed and went, “well now that I’ve read that I’m ready to get to sleep.”
Of course, some people use podcasts or other sounds from their phones to get to sleep so they are going to need to still keep them close by - so if that’s the case for you, I’m just going to encourage you to make sure your setting yourself up for success and staying off of the things that are going to keep you engaged with using them in the evening. If they’re just too tempting, then you can look into apps like Freedom that can help block those apps in the evening.
With my phone down, it’s all about getting myself comfortable for bed. Personally, I have sensory issues and cannot fall asleep without taking a quick shower. I’ll also brush my teeth, use the bathroom and get into my pajamas. Once I’m in bed, I do a quick journal entry that is literally a sentence or two summing up my day and then I’ll get out my kindle and do some reading until I’m ready to actually fall asleep.
On a typical night, I’m hoping to get this process started from 9:30-10:00 and be asleep by 10:30 or 11. This means as I’m working to shift my schedule back for the time change that I’m going to want to work on moving the start of this process back from 9:30 to say 9:15 and then 9 o’clock and eventually to 8:30. And I can do this process either over the course of a couple of weeks or just a few days depending on how much time I have to get ready for the shift.
Now that’s how we can work on shifting our schedule for getting to bed, but that are also a lot of things that we can do once we get up the next morning that can be beneficial for shifting our circadian rhythms as well.
Just setting our alarm clocks earlier won’t do much alone to help get us shifted.
Our first priority here is going to be getting morning light into our eye - light exposure is one of the powerful factors in our circadian rhythms. Now we might feel like just turning on all the lights in our kitchen in the morning is enough, but even on cloudy days the outside sky is going to have a much stronger effect. Just 15 to 30 minutes of light in the morning can have a significant effect on the sleep cycle. And again, this is important to be outside for because we’re just not going to be getting the same effects from being inside, even if we’re next to a window.
If you can’t get outside there are some options for indoor lights that can provide some of the same effects as getting outside. What we’re looking for when looking at these are lamps that provide a high number of lumens - which just a measurement of the total amount of light emitted by a light source. When we’re outdoors we’re going to be getting roughly 1000 to 100,000 lux - and lux is how much light is falling on surface (because it’s a bit unfair to compare the lumens of a light bulb to that of the sun - although in either case the sun tends to win).
But as a note here, these light just are not going to be as effective as outdoor exposure to daylight even on cloudy days, but I totally understand that not everyone is going to be easily able to get outside to do that. So these light can be a great alternative - albeit a somewhat expensive one depending on what you are buying.
Along with light exposure, another good method of adjusting your circadian rhythm is to get regular exercise - if you can swing it, a quick walk in the morning would be an excellent way to get both your light exposure in and some easy movement.
Additionally, you are going to want to think about your alcohol and caffeine consumption in the evening. While some of us with ADHD find that we can easily sleep with caffeine in our systems, I haven’t seen any data that supports us getting better sleep. While caffeine is thought of typically only affecting how easily you can go to sleep, many studies have pointed to it also decreasing the quality of your sleep as well.
Alcohol has similar issues with lower that quality of sleep and so while we’re trying to adjust our schedules it’s usually best just to avoid it all together - but if you do decide to imbibe, then you are going to want to limit your intake and try and have your last drink at least a few hours before bedtime.
Along with these factors the way we are feeding ourselves can effect the way our circadian clock is operating. While this is a fairly complex topic when we’re looking at adjusting ourselves what we want to focus on here is making sure that we’re making sure to adjust our meal times with everything else we’re doing and making sure that we’re not snacking too close to bedtime.
Finally, we also have the option of using melatonin, which is a natural hormone found in our bodies that promotes sleepiness but is also a fairly common supplement. Melatonin is often used by people hoping to treat their sleep roles, but as a natural hormone, it is one of our body's ways of signaling when it is time for us to fall asleep. As such it can be incredibly useful when we want to work on shifting our circadian rhythms.
One of the most important factors when considering melatonin is the dosage. Melatonin is often sold in a range of 1 to 10 mg; however, most studies on melatonin are looking at it in the 3 mg range. An additional consideration here is that a 2017 study of 31 melatonin supplements found that they had a range of 83% lower to 478% higher of the supplement over what was stated on the label. That’s quite the range and what that means is that if you were buy a 3 mg supplement the range of what you might actually be getting could be anywhere from around 2.5 mg to over 14 mg. The take away being that we need to be cautious of which supplement we’re investing in and making sure that they’ve been certified by Consumer Lab or the United States Pharmacopeia.
Melatonin can also have interactions with other medications so be sure to consider everything your taking before making anything new.
This Episode’s Top Tips
When we’re preparing for an upcoming time change we can start moving our wake and sleep times gradually to match up with the change.
While it can be tough to adjust our bedtime if we focus on setting a strong bedtime routine we can use that help us get us sleepy and work on adjusting when we’re starting to get ready for bed instead of just when we want to fall asleep.
Our circadian rhythm dictates our sleep cycle and energy throughout the day - we can influence it with things like morning sunlight, exercise, when we’re eating, and in some cases, melatonin.