How to change time without losing your sleep? Expert advice is pouring in ahead of this weekend’s switch to Daylight Saving Time. Here’s the best way to get past it.
The 2022 winter time change takes place this weekend. In the night from Saturday to Sunday, it will be a question of modifying the position of the hands of his watch or his clock from 3 to 2 hours. Winter time is generally a less difficult passage than summer time, since this time the time change will save us an hour of sleep. But for all that, many still find it difficult to cross this course. Sleep disturbances, stress and other chrono-biological upheavals are indeed observed by doctors in October as in March, when it comes to switching to summer time. The fault of the “circadian rhythm” which makes our body accustomed since our earliest childhood to operate according to cycles of 24 hours (and not 23 or 25 depending on the time change). How to face this course without suffering too much?
First, it is advisable to anticipate the time change as much as possible. In winter, it will thus be a question of going to bed a little later than usual. Several sleep specialists suggest going about it a week before the fateful date by pushing back the bedtime by 10 minutes each evening. An effort that presupposes that we go to bed every night at the same time, which is not the case for everyone… After six days, the course of the time change will thus have passed without interruption brutal in the circadian rhythm. Another trick which is already integrated by many French people: change the time on Saturday rather than Sunday. It is indeed Sunday at 3 am that the time officially changes. At 3 o’clock, it will thus be 2 o’clock according to the rules established in the European Union. However, changing the time on Saturday will allow you to go to bed at the “right time”, without forcing your body to get used to it the next morning.
It’s probably a detail for you, but for some it means a lot: the goal is to prepare our body as well as possible even before the time change. Some chrono-biologists thus recommend don’t sleep in on Sunday, taking advantage of the hour gained. This will only disturb your biological rhythm even more. This time, therefore, no question of approaching the new hour to get up. Better to try to stay close to the old time by getting up a bit earlier… You might say that you can’t understand anything!
Ultimate advice for better coping with the time change: it would be beneficial to take a nap this Sunday in case of severe fatigue. The nap, if it is short, allows you to recover visibly without completely putting your body to sleep (in this case, you will then have several hours). Other useful details: although the New Year is still far away, the time change is the perfect time to make good resolutions. Sleep specialists repeat year after year that screens in the bedroom should be avoided at all costs. So avoid turning on the TV when you’re under the duvet, or, even worse, playing with your tablet or smartphone.