Summer time hit you like a brick? How to cope better

Summer time hit you like a brick? How to cope better

By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner

When it comes to health, daylight saving time is, frankly, bad. It’s not just that we lose an hour of sleep (which in itself is harmful), it’s that every day spent in daylight saving time takes a toll on our bodies, says Emily Manoogian, senior researcher at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, who studies the body’s biological clocks.

“The whole time we’re using daylight saving time, we’re misaligning our environment with our bodies,” says Manoogian. “It’s not the one-hour shift that makes everyone feel bad. It’s this chronic disruption that makes us worse versions of ourselves.”

Experts — including Manoogian — typically recommend trying to change your daily schedule before the clocks change to accommodate daylight saving time, perhaps by eating a half hour earlier or going to bed 15 minutes earlier. But that’s just not possible for some, and others may forget about the impending clock change. Others may still be more profoundly affected by the lost hour of sleep, much in the same way that some people are less able to cope with jet lag.

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Jet lag is a good way to think about daylight saving time, says Manoogian, who is also a member of the Center for Circadian Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and public outreach director at the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. We don’t just lose an hour of sleep; Our circadian system is also thrown out of victory. The circadian system refers to the body’s package of clocks – each cell with DNA has a clock, and each of these clocks feed back to each other. Our brain acts as a kind of Time Lord, using light and other sensory cues to coordinate our behavior, such as when we eat and sleep, and to regulate the timing of all our clocks.

Running forward puts the body an hour behind. “You’re forcing your body to do things it’s not ready to do yet,” says Manoogian. Eat breakfast: In the days after daylight savings time goes into effect, your glucose regulation can be compromised because your body clocks register that you’re fasting and still asleep when you’re actually awake. If you eat first, your blood sugar level may rise higher than usual. Cortisol, the brain hormone that naturally wakes you up, can peak after you get up too, so you can feel moody and stressed before that hormone kicks in.

Fatigue and bad food choices are also common reactions to the time change, she says. For people who feel a little out of it in the days after DST, making sure you get outside, preferably in the sunshine, exercise and go to bed earlier for a week or so can help combat some of these side effects. Sleep if you can, she says, and don’t force yourself to do anything too strenuous in the morning for a few days. “Don’t push yourself too hard,” she stresses.

Putting the body’s clocks out of sync can be fatal, says Manoogian. “One of the more common things we see in daylight saving time is an increase in cardiac events,” she explains. Some research has found an increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes in the days after the bells spring, possibly as a result of the misaligned cortisol. For people who are already at higher risk, “that misalignment and forcing your body to do something before it’s ready can be enough to knock it over,” she says. The lack of sleep can also lead to more car accidents.

Ultimately, the body needs a few days to catch up to the changed time. Early birds who are already conditioned to wake up early may have an easier time adjusting than night owls, says Manoogian. Different parts of the body tend to make the shift at different rates, she says: the brain and other vital organs such as the heart tend to catch up to the new times more quickly than non-vital organs and tissues, including the muscles and gut.

Food plays an important role in this process, she says: “This can also be a good time to reconsider when you should eat because many of us eat too early or too late.” Giving yourself an hour after you wake up before eating and a couple of hours to digest before bed can help regulate your circadian rhythm. Of course, people who need to stick to a schedule, especially school-aged children, don’t have the luxury of making time in the morning.

Unfortunately for all of us who are forced to go through daylight saving time, there are no documented health benefits of the time change, says Manoogian. “The whole time we’re doing it, we’re hurting ourselves a little bit, and it affects some groups more than others,” she says.

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