If you haven’t noticed, dusk has been falling later and later these past few weeks. And that means one thing: Daylight Saving Time is almost here.
In fact, it’s this weekend, as we all “spring forward” at 2 a.m. Sunday, March 14.
Sunrise and sunset will be about an hour later than on Saturday, until we “fall back” to Central Standard Time next Nov. 7.
Well, not for everyone. Forty-nine of 51 U.S. states and federal districts observe Daylight Saving Time. Among those that don’t are Hawaii and most of Arizona.
Now, turning the clock forward before heading to bed this Saturday night means that we all “lose” an hour. Psychiatrists say that this can disrupt two key physiological drives that control our sleep: our circadian rhythms and our sleep homeostat, which keeps track of our “sleep debt.”
For most folks, the lost hour of sleep is just a mild disruption, but on a population basis, it can be fatal. Traffic studies have shown that the spring shift is associated with a small, but significant, increase in the number of fatal crashes on the Monday following the time shift.
We’re told that some people are more strongly affected by the time shift, including those with sleep apnea or psychiatric problems such as bipolar disorder, shift workers whose circadian rhythms already are disrupted, and others who are chronically sleep-deprived.
The good thing is that there are several things you can do to cope with the lost hour of sleep:
• If you tend to sleep in on the weekends, avoid doing this on on Saturday so you’re ready to go to bed earlier that night.
• Expose yourself to bright light in the morning when you first awake to help reset your circadian clock.
• Avoid caffeine after noon and avoid alcohol close to bedtime.
• Get some rigorous exercise several hours before bed Saturday.
And whenever you do arise and shine on Sunday, take a few minutes to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon dioxide detectors. You never can be too safe.
Sweet dreams!
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