The spring-forward yawns
Posted Mar 10, 2012 05:00:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The “spring-forward” time change doesn’t just keep the sun out later, and our clocks an hour later. It can also be tough on the natural sleep cycle of the body.
System Design Engineering Professor at the University of Waterloo, Catherine Burns told 570 News what you’re experiencing, “your circadian rhythm is actually a little bit longer than 24 hours, and that means it makes it a lot easier for your body to adjust to the fall time change, when you sleep in an hour longer, than the spring time change.”
Researchers have noted the affect a lost hour can have on us, “when you look at a large population, you can find… small increases in things like traffic accidents that would happen the day after the spring change,” said Burns.
How is this known to be more than a coincidence? Burns explains, “the opposite effect (is found) the day after the fall time change, so when people have had an extra hour of sleep, their performance is a little better.”
Burns said if you want to avoid feeling that drag, you should plan for it, “it’s definitely a great idea to use that time to get to bed a little bit earlier that night. Take your hour at the start, don’t just take it out of your sleep.”
Other options Burns recommends is to adjust a little slower, “by about half an hour, so you adjust a little bit more easily to it.”
Burns also suggests just being mindful of what you are going through can help, “you may be a little bit more tired than usual and adjust your activities accordingly.”
