Ease into the Daylight Saving Time change
I have a (relatively) gentle approach to the Daylight Saving Time shift that almost makes it tolerable.
It's almost time to do another Daylight Saving Time shift. Like most everyone else, I abhor the time shifting we do. It's brutal and I wish we would stop. Stick to the summer clock, or the winter clock, whatever, I don't care, just stop jerking us around multiple times a year. (But if you're asking me, I like the summer clock much, much better.)
Here's my tip: don't do it all in one night. Spread the time change over a few days.
When Wanda was little, having a consistent sleep schedule was both critical and tricky. (ADHD folks & sleep is a whooooooooole ass thing.) Shocking her internal clock like that would have meant a lot of harsh recovery time; I had to come up with a better way. My solution was to shift her schedule only 15 minutes at a time, spaced a few days apart. And it worked!
Now that she's older, we don't have to be quite so cautious. We still only do 15 minutes at a time, but we do it over four days.
Spring forward!
- Wednesday: go to bed 15 minutes early
- Thursday: wake up 15 minutes early, go to bed 30 minutes early
- Friday: wake up 30 minutes early, go to bed 45 minutes early
- Saturday: wake up 45 minutes early, go to bed one hour early
- Sunday: you're on the new schedule!
Fall back!
- Wednesday: go to bed 15 minutes late
- Thursday: wake up 15 minutes late, go to bed 30 minutes late
- Friday: wake up 30 minutes late, go to bed 45 minutes late
- Saturday: wake up 45 minutes late, go to bed one hour late
- Sunday: you're on the new schedule!
I also move my meal times, so my whole body is on board. It still sucks and is very, very stupid! But at least it's not such a shock to the system.
While looking for artwork for this post, I learned about Martyl Langsdorf, the creator of the Doomsday Clock concept. She'd been approached to create the cover artwork for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It contained a collection of writings by scientists at the University of Chicago; some of them had worked on the atomic bomb project, and they were worried about the direction of things. Langsdorf created a graphic depiction of a clock at 7 minutes to midnight to convey a sense of urgency. The Doomsday Clock has lived on as a way for scientists to communicate concern. Feels relevant.
