It’s that time of year where the clocks change again, and we feel like zombies while our bodies adjust. We know we can’t be the only ones that have a rough go at that first week after Daylight Saving Time. March 14, 2021, is the date our clocks “spring forward” this year. We lose an hour, and sometimes that’s all it takes to feel like we are continually playing catch-up. Did you know that Daylight Saving Time came about during World War I and only lasted seven months? It was then added back during World War II and eventually adapted into what we have today. The time change came about to save energy and fuel by utilizing the daylight hours more efficiently. We had no idea why and how Daylight Savings came about, and this article from The Old Farmer’s Almanac proved an interesting read. Here are some of our tips to make Daylight Saving Time a little easier this year.
Get to Bed Earlier
Try to go to bed an hour earlier this week to help your body adjust. Think of it as training. Just like when you send your kids to bed earlier before school starts, send yourself to bed earlier to adjust for the lost hour. If you can get to bed earlier before the time change, you only have to deal with the disorienting sunrise and not the fatigue.
Utilize the Longer Evenings
Now that the time for sunset is later in the evening spend some time outdoors after work. Enjoy the longer evenings by going outside, if the weather permits. We also encourage you to keep your curtains open later to take in as many of those rays as you can. This will help adjust your internal clock and help save energy, just like initially intended.
Check your Calendar
If possible, try to push your Monday morning meetings back an hour to allow your brain a little extra time to adjust. If you have any plans on Sunday, make sure everybody is aware of the time change. We wouldn’t want somebody showing up late because of time confusion.
Change your Mindset
Changing your mindset is the most important tip we have to offer. It’s easy to think about that lost hour and reference back to it all week. “I’m so tired because we lost an hour.” “It’s actually 5 o’clock, so the workday is over.” Adjust your mindset about what time it was before the time change. For us, we don’t think about it. That is much easier said than done, but being aware of that thinking is the first step. We can’t change it, so we may embrace it and adjust our mindset to do that.
Modern technology has made the time change a lot easier. Fortunately, our phones auto-adjust, so we at least have one clock telling us the correct time. That doesn’t make it any less confusing to look at the oven clock and think you are still an hour ahead. Change all your clocks and follow the tips above to make this time change a little easier. Enjoy that extra hour of sun at the end of the day, and remember we lose an hour now, but we will have an extra hour of sleep in the fall! Daylight Saving Time tells us that it’s almost spring, and we are ready for that.