Daylight-Saving-Spring
I know what you may be thinking…”is she crazy, Spring is nearly 2 months away”? Actually, Spring is only 47 days away and Day Light Saving begins in only 40 days (or 5.174 weeks) on Sunday, March 13th.
Hey, I am a girl that loves her sleep and if you watch my videos, you know that I like my sleep and I am not happy about losing an hour of it or a single second. So, get this…I did not design this, but I am going to try this trick of Easing into the lost hour and I heard it is really great if you have small children. All you need to do is for the next 5 weeks is go to bed 10 minutes earlier than usual and wake up 10 minutes earlier each morning. Sounds easy, right? Last night I did not go to bed earlier, I did set my alarm clock 10 minutes earlier and boy was I tired, but the benefit was I got to work out a little and eat breakfast before I left the house! Each week, you will increase the time to bed and time to rise by 10 minutes so that by the time Day Light Saving begins you will not feel like you are losing an hour and your children will not be miserable either.
Children suffer the most from this time change because they require the most sleep in order to grow and to learn in school and to process the food they eat for those same two reasons. The body’s circadian rhythm is thrown off and although we will gain an hour of sunlight, some people cannot adjust their internal clocks until Day Light Saving’s ends. Some doctors claim that it only takes one day to adjust…they are lying as far as I am concerned.
If you would like to give this a try, I made the following guide based on 10 minute adjustments:
- Tonight – Go to be 10 minutes earlier and set your alarm 10 minutes earlier.
- Week 2 – Go to bed 10 minutes earlier than last week and set your alarm another 10 minutes earlier for a total of 20 minutes earlier on each end.
- Week 3 – Go to bed 10 minutes earlier than last week and set your alarm another 10 minutes earlier for a total of 30 minutes earlier on each end.
- Week 4- Go to bed another 10 minutes earlier than the last week and wake up an extra 10 minutes earlier for a total of 40 minutes on each end from your usual time.
- Week 5- You should know the drill by now…Go to bed another 10 minutes earlier than the last week and wake up an extra 10 minutes earlier for a total of 50 minutes on each end from your usual time.
Your children will really benefit the most from this and they will not be little cranky monsters in March when the time changes and their studies will not slip either (another known scientific fact: children’s grades decrease the report card after Day Light Saving due to sleep deprivation). Also, by giving your children the proper amount of sleep each night, there will be less temper tantrums at the mall or food shopping- so you will help people like me that lobby to make children free public places for my living pleasure.
Give it a whirl and if not for you, at least give it a try for the kiddies. If you do try this, please let me know in 6 weeks how it worked for you!