Daylight saving time hit you like a brick? Here’s how to cope better

By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner

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

“The whole time we’re on daylight saving time, we’re misaligning our environment with our bodies,” Manoogian says. “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 shift your daily schedule before the clocks change to align with daylight saving time, perhaps by eating a half hour earlier or going to bed 15 minutes before your usual time. But that’s just not possible for some, and others might forget about the forthcoming clock change. Others still can 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 chair 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 whack. The circadian system refers to the body’s suite of clocks—every cell with DNA has a clock, and each of these clocks feeds back into one another. Our brain acts as a kind of Time Lord that uses light and other sensory cues to coordinate our behavior, such as when we eat and sleep, and that regulates the timing of all the clocks.

Springing forward puts the body an hour behind. “You’re forcing your body to do things it’s not ready to do yet,” Manoogian says. Take eating breakfast: For days after daylight saving comes into effect, your glucose regulation may be compromised because your body’s clocks sense that you are fasting and still asleep when you are, in fact, awake. If you eat first thing, your blood sugar levels could rise higher than usual. Cortisol, the brain hormone that wakes you up naturally, may peak after you’ve risen, too, so you could feel moody and stressed before that hormone kicks in.

Foggy thinking and poor food choices are also common reactions to the time change, she says. For folks who find themselves feeling a little out of it in the days after daylight saving, making sure that you are getting outside, preferably into the sunshine, exercising and going to bed earlier for a week or so can help combat some of these ill effects. Sleep in if you can, she says, and don’t force yourself to do anything too strenuous in the mornings for a few days. “Don’t push yourself too hard,” she stresses.

Putting our body’s clocks out of sync can be deadly, Manoogian says. “One of the more common things that we see in daylight saving time is an increase in heart events,” she explains. Some research has found an increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes in the days after the clocks spring forward, 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 tip 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 attuned to waking up early might have an easier time adjusting than night owls, Manoogian says. Different parts of the body tend to make the shift at different speeds, she says: the brain and other vital organs such as the heart tend to catch up to the new time faster than nonvital organs and tissues, including your muscles and gut.

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

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

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