Daylight saving time: 10 tips to make it easier

Scientific studies have shown that daylight saving time can interfere with rest. Image via feck_aRt_post/Flickr.

Daylight saving time begins

At at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 13, 2022, clocks in most U.S. states and Canadian provinces will be turned forward one hour. Daylight saving time begins for many of us! It’ll end on November 6. The memory tool for your clocks is spring forward. Easy to do with clocks. Less easy – for many – with our own bodies. We hear that the number of car crashes increases with the start of daylight saving time (DST). More people have heart attacks. Many report feeling groggy or off kilter in the week following. Here are some tips that might help.

1. Set your alarm for 30 minutes earlier Sunday.

2. Eat some good breakfasts this week!

3. Get some sunlight.

4. Keep up your exercise schedule.

5. Drink extra water, and limit caffeine, alcohol and sugar.

6. Manage your stress with whatever stress-busting techniques work for you.

7. Go to sleep a few minutes earlier.

8. Sleep in complete darkness, in a not-too-warm room.

9. Get up at your usual time, no matter what the sunrise is doing.

10. Don’t think in terms of what time it is really. As your alarm goes off at 6 a.m. Monday morning, try not to think … it’s really only 5 a.m. Good luck!

View larger. | Dark gray places have never used DST, light gray places formerly used it. Orange places use DST in the Southern Hemisphere summer. Blue places use DST in the Northern Hemisphere summer. Image via Wikipedia.

5 ways life would be better were it always daylight saving time

Don’t like daylight saving time? Blame New Zealand entomologist G.V. Hudson. He first proposed a system resembling our modern one to the Wellington Philosophical Society in 1895. He valued those extra daylight hours after work as a time to gather insects. Don’t like daylight time? Be glad we didn’t use Hudson’s original proposal for a two-hour shift!

Bottom line: Daylight saving time in the U.S. and Canada begins March 13, 2022. Suggestions for coping with the time change.

The post Daylight saving time: 10 tips to make it easier first appeared on EarthSky.