AILSA CHANG, HOST:
OK, remember, everybody, Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend. That means clocks spring forward, and we all lose an hour of sleep on Sunday. Ugh. Clare Marie Schneider of NPR's Life Kit has some tips to help you adjust to the time change. Hi, Clare Marie.
CLARE MARIE SCHNEIDER, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: OK, I have to admit, I dread this time every year because I'm already a terrible morning person as it is. So that first day of getting up an hour early is really painful. I would...
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
CHANG: ...Love some strategies on how to prepare for this disruption to my sleep.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah, I talked to Allison Harvey about this. She's a professor at the University of California Berkeley, and she's a sleep scientist and a licensed clinical psychologist. And she talked about the importance of resetting your circadian rhythm, so basically letting your body's internal clock know when it's time to wake up and when it's time to sleep. So to start, she says try waking up 15 to 20 minutes earlier than usual tomorrow morning - Saturday morning.
CHANG: Aw.
SCHNEIDER: Then she says...
CHANG: (Laughter).
SCHNEIDER: ...On Sunday, wake up 30 to 40 minutes earlier than you normally would, which I know might sound hard, but Harvey says it is worth it.
ALLISON HARVEY: It will really help Monday, when most of us have to be somewhere, if tomorrow and Sunday, people can be bringing the circadian clock forward. Now, what we're doing by moving the circadian clock in this way is cuing our whole sleep and circadian systems that it has to realign with this wake-up time.
CHANG: OK, so great. I just have to make the pain start earlier and wake up earlier, earlier. (Laughter) Is there anything else I can do to help this along?
SCHNEIDER: Yeah, Harvey really emphasized how important it is to get outside when you wake up this weekend.
HARVEY: And even if you can't get outdoors, generally have the curtains open and try to spend some time outside, even on a cloudy day, just to get the outdoor light.
SCHNEIDER: So again, that light is all in an attempt to reset your internal clock and let your body know, hey, we're making a change. Harvey said, get as much as you can. Twenty minutes would be great. But if you can only swing a couple minutes outside, that's fine, too.
CHANG: OK, so get that sunlight, wake up earlier, earlier. Keep going. What else should I do?
SCHNEIDER: Yeah, so one final thing we talked about is trying to get ready for bed a bit earlier, too. So just like you want to wake up earlier, you also want to signal to your body a little sooner than usual that it's time for bed.
HARVEY: So tonight, if it's we usually go to bed at 10 p.m., start that wind down at 9 p.m. And during the wind down, it would be dimming the lights and engaging in relaxing, sleep-enhancing activities so that we have a bit more chance of falling asleep a little bit earlier.
CHANG: OK, this all sounds great for people who plan ahead. But what if you are like me, during some years, and you wake up Sunday morning, and you've totally forgotten that the clocks had changed, and you've...
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
CHANG: ...Done nothing to prepare? What do you do then?
SCHNEIDER: Yeah. It's a good question, and I think a lot of us will be in this camp.
CHANG: (Laughter).
SCHNEIDER: So here's what Seema Khosla, a sleep medicine physician in Fargo, North Dakota, had to say about that.
SEEMA KHOSLA: Don't panic. Have a normal day. Maybe do a little bit more exercise. Do a little bit more something so you're a little bit sleepier so you can go to bed a little bit earlier. Remember, we get another chance to get it right tomorrow. You know, take that pressure off of yourself. Do the best you can do in that moment.
CHANG: OK, you can always suffer Monday morning instead. That is Life Kit producer Clare Marie Schneider. Thank you so much, Clare Marie.
SCHNEIDER: Thank you, Ailsa. I hope you sleep well this weekend.
CHANG: Yeah, thanks. OK. And if you're interested in more tips to help you sleep better, sign up for Life Kit's special newsletter at npr.org/sleepweek. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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