Really? It’s afternoon already?
Yes, it’s officially here.
Daylight savings has arrived, the clock shock has hit us, and we all feel cheated out of a full sixty minutes of our Sunday.
(Actual footage of your boss shutting his door on you and your colleagues tomorrow morning while he takes a nap in his office…)
Come Monday, we’ll all be a bit more bitter than usual about the fact that we didn’t even get a full weekend.
Okay, maybe that’s a stretch. But, whichever way you spin it, the transition can definitely continue to be a bit more difficult to integrate into our lives well into the week. It may not seem like much of a difference, but that one hour may make getting to sleep on time a challenge – and the waking up part even harder the next morning. So, what’s the fix? It’s actually pretty simple. You just do all the things you’d usually do when you’re about to start a new job where you know you’re gonna hafta rise ‘n shine when the sun isn’t yet. (Like I’m going to need to do in a week or so when I have to start waking up at 3 A.M. again for clinical rotation…) What you do is program your somatic computer to track with the time change. It takes an adjustment period. It’s not fun, initially. But once it’s your new normal, it hard to even recall the former routine you used to have. And, while that all can be a challenge in application, having an actionable plan can alleviate the pain of change. In fact, there are some simple tried and true tips we can each activate to ease the alteration toward spring’s clock. (Ya know, so we don’t have to hammer-smash the springs out of our clocks.)
Here they are:
Wake up earlier
During my last early morning clinical rotation, I was already nodding off by around 4 or 5 P.M. Why? Well, when you’re waking up at 3 or 4 every morning to get in your workout before work, your body’s about ready to throw in the towel far sooner than your colleagues’ might be. Doing so will also ensure that you’re ready to rest on time when night comes – versus staying up for “just one more episode” of that new show you just discovered. Don’t have another good reason to inspire that earlier alarm? Keep reading…
Workout, first thing, and outside, if possible
Waking up early for the sake of falling asleep later may not feel like much of a motivating force. For me, knowing I need time to workout helps. That’s my motivator. Now, I know what you’re thinking. That may sound like more of a deterrent than anything. Waking up is bad enough. But now you have to work out as well? Well, aside from the waking up early making you fall asleep later, and aside from working out motivating that wake up, there’s a good reason for using this as your inspiration. First, it means your daily workout is done. Finished. No dredging up the willpower after work. Also, after a long day and a workout early, it won’t just be your mind that’s too tired to stay up racing later on this evening. Your body will be too. And, if you can make that workout happen outside as the sun rises, that’s even better – as the exposure to sunlight helps regulate those sleep-wake cycle hormones.
(Check my girl, flexing like a boss out in the morning sunshine.)
Supper sooner
By now, you may be noticing the “early” theme to everything. So, you may have guessed by now that eating is gonna be on that list, too. By pushing up all the things on your routine, you trick your mind ‘n body into believing that the day is ending sooner. And food is no exception. Whip up that delicious dinner early, go on a post supper stroll, and then hit the hay.
Match your wind-down timer for DST
Don’t know what a wind-down timer is? Every night my boyfriend’s over, there’s this little lullaby chime that comes on his phone. It’s an alarm, intended for weeknights, to remind him that it’s time to stow the phone and start thinking about thinking of nothing from under the covers for the next seven to eight hours. All you gotta do is set that timer back a bit from what you’re accustomed to. And don’t think you’ll be fine without it – because that shiz sneaks up on you every time during this stretch of the year…
(IKR?)
Okay, so now that we’ve drilled the “earlier” thing in, you might be asking, “why?” This is what I wondered when I read lots of articles suggesting the same. I mean, my phone automatically resets to meet daylight savings time hours. It’s not like I have to change the time on anything for the sake of waking up too late or whatever. But, as I learned last year after I started doing this, that’s not the point. The point, rather, is what will happen if you try going to sleep at your usual bedtime. Let’s say you try to get in bed by 10 most nights. What happens on those nights? There’s probably a good fifteen minutes to half an hour of tossing and turning first, right? We don’t just go from chores to immediate powering down, most of us. Anxiety and adrenaline keep us awake for a while. When you go to bed tonight, your body’s already gonna be tossing and turning, because it’s still on “ummm… it’s only 9 P.M.” time. This means you won’t actually fall asleep until half an hour or more than your usual time, making your total hours of slumber logged less than what you require. By backtracking that time-for-bed alarm to go off even just fifteen minutes to half an hour earlier, you give your body time to do all that pre-delta wave sheep counting before you legitimately drift off. And then there’s no sleep lost.
Done all this but having trouble talking yourself into laying down early?
Then try the following tips to make that last hour before bed a bit more soporific…