Eight Practical Tips to Sleep Better Through Daylight Savings
When it’s working, sleep can be a beautiful thing, with physical, mental, and emotional benefits. But sleep can also become a source of frustration, especially if we get into a cycle of taking too long to fall asleep or waking earlier than intended. Getting into bed can make us feel anxious as we anticipate the dreaded process that awaits. Sleep can be tough enough in normal circumstances but throw in a phase-shift of an hour during daylight savings and it can feel like insult to injury.
Losing sleep or having poor sleep quality can be incredibly frustrating and can understandably lead to a desire for a quick fix. The most common advice is to prepare for the upcoming time change by slowly shifting your bedtime by 20 minutes for 3 days leading up to the date. The second most common, is to ensure that you are getting outdoors so that exposure to sunlight can help reset your circadian rhythm. These are both great ideas, but they often don’t feel like enough. While it doesn’t take much to throw off sleep, the road back to good sleep can take time and can require a bit of trial and error to find the solution that works best for you. Progress comes from routines, a consistent schedule, and a healthy serving of patience.
Below are eight practical tips to get your sleep on track, but don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Rather than trying to aim for the optimal solution, try instead to pick one or two small changes you can maintain confidently. Limiting the number of changes you initially make can nudge you to a good night’s sleep and make sustained change feel more attainable. With success, you can keep adding new strategies until you’ve made the changes that work for you.
Optimize sleepiness during the day
Exercise early: Optimal exercise happens in the morning and early afternoon, with exposure to natural light as a bonus for kick starting the adrenal glands that release the wake-up hormone, cortisol.
No caffeine after noon: Coffee can stay in your system up to 10-12 hours after consumption, giving you an energy boost long after you want it.
No naps or at most 20 minutes: Accruing sufficient sleepiness throughout the day ensures a good night’s sleep. Naps help you catch up on lost sleep but can contribute to a vicious cycle of being insufficiently tired later.
Create your restful refuge
Cool the temperature: Our bodies sleep best in temperatures of 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit, so aim for a number below 70, or try placing an ice pack on your head for a few minutes.
Reduce intermittent sounds: Our fight-or-flight instincts are easily triggered, and an innocent sound in the night can signal danger to our bodies. A sound machine can help, and many cell phones now have this function built in.
Manage sleeping partner sounds: If you have a partner who snores or tosses during the night, your sleep may be impacted. You may not be ready to sleep in separate rooms, so consider using two twin mattresses in a king bedframe to reduce movement or use ear plugs to dampen sounds.
Cultivate a wind down routine
Relax your mind and body: Just like you would stretch or roll your muscles before a workout, develop a pre-bed routine one-hour before bedtime that quiets your mind and readies your body to rest, like gentle stretching, meditation, or listening to calming music.
Use digital devices responsibly
An hour without screens before bed: Using your phone may temporarily allow you to unwind and forget about the day, but thoughts pop up as soon as you stop suppressing them. Give your mind time to wander and roam.
Choose content that brings joy: The ideal show/podcast close to bedtime should be comedic or evoke positive emotions that are best for rest and recovery. Choose something you’ve seen/heard already so you won’t be wondering about the next episode.
Get ahead of tomorrow: If you are going to use your phone at night, use it to prepare for the next day or even get some tasks done. Make a to-do list, separating have-to items from aspirational ones. Use the delayed-send function to write emails or texts that will get sent in the morning. Feel accomplished without risking a response once you’re in bed.
Do not disturb: Customize your phone’s do-not-disturb settings to prevent unwanted intrusions while assuring you won’t miss something urgent. Set automatic email responses starting at a specific hour of the night. Even in work settings that expect responses outside typical work hours, it is healthy to set appropriate boundaries and reclaim your right to a good night’s sleep.
Reassociate your bed with sleep
Use bed for only sleep and intimacy: Our mind unconsciously pairs things together. Even relaxing activities like reading or watching TV should be done outside of your bed so your body learns that your bed is just for sleeping.
Get out of bed after 30 minutes: If you’ve been lying in bed for more than 30 minutes, you are likely also getting frustrated. Try getting up and stretching, reading a calming book on the couch, or working on a crossword puzzle, then get back in bed once you are sleepy.
Keep a fixed sleep schedule
Maintain a consistent wakeup time, all seven days: Teach your body when it must wake up by setting a specific time to get out of bed with no snoozing or cheat days. Once acclimated, your body will be better at sending messages of sleepiness so you know when to get into bed at night.
Take a substance break
Avoid using alcohol or other drugs to fall asleep: While alcohol may help get you to sleep, it stimulates you midway through the night. Cigarettes, while having a momentary calming effect, are stimulants and can also make you more alert.
Use social support to take a sustained break: Substances can linger in your system and disrupt sleep for days or weeks, much longer than the intoxicating effects. To take a sustained break, invite friends to join you in a sober month. Try out local bars specializing in mocktails or recreate childhood fun with board game nights.
See a professional
Get a yearly physical: A medical evaluation can identify sleep impairing conditions and can lead to interventions like changing your medication regimen.
See a therapist who specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I): A specialist in CBT-I will help not only address the thought processes that are interfering with sleep but can also create a customized behavioral schedule to optimize sleep duration.
Some of the proposed recommendations may not be steps you are willing to take, and that’s ok. But it’s also important to acknowledge that some people can do things that are not recommended and get away without any negative consequences. You may need to make choices different from your friends or family to get the sleep quality you need. Honor who you are, your body’s needs, and pick the changes that work for you.