- Ideas
- Psychology
- You Don’t Have to Dread the End of Daylight Saving
Ideas
October 22, 2024 7:00 AM EDT
The end of daylight saving time is an abrupt shift: from one day to the next, the day is blunted. The change is usually met with initial relief at getting an extra hour of sleep, and then a lot of grumpiness the following week, punctuated by remarks of “It gets dark out so early now” and “It’s only 6:30 p.m.!? It feels like 9 p.m.!” But rather than responding passively, we can actively anticipate, and even welcome, the end of daylight saving time.
One of the biggest problems with the end of daylight saving time is how, like so much of winter, it sneaks up on us. Now that our phones update the time automatically, it’s even possible to sleep through the shift without realizing: while writing my book, How to Winter, I visited a local coffee shop the morning after the clock change. When I asked the barista if she enjoyed her extra hour of sleep, she replied, “Oh, is that why my cat woke up early this morning?” Our schedules don’t accommodate it: we don’t end work or school earlier or adjust our routines. We are blindsided by the darkness, shocked at how tired we feel, frustrated that the world around us has shifted suddenly and unnaturally.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The first step of embracing the clock change is to anticipate the transition. Mark it on the calendar in advance, so it becomes part of the rhythm of fall. Acknowledge that the end of daylight saving time might have consequences. It’s unreasonable to think that a sudden one-hour change in daylight won’t affect us physically or emotionally; at the very least, this abrupt shift disrupts our circadian rhythms, messing with our sleep schedules in a way similar to jet lag. Light also helps us feel alert and improves cognition, which boosts our mood, so losing an hour of afternoon luminosity can have a mild depressant effect, especially when we’re not prepared for it. We may have less energy in the week after the end of daylight saving time, have our routines disrupted, and feel less like socializing or being active. We can expect that the week post- clock-change will be a transition week: an in‑between period bringing us from one season to another.
Read More: Daylight Saving Time Is the Worst
To facilitate this transition, and to give myself something comforting to look forward to, I plan in advance for a lighter week after the end of daylight saving time, scaling back on unnecessary meetings and appointments. I know that I’ll feel more tired, so I try not to overload myself. Not all of us are able to adjust our schedules significantly, but if you can reduce meetings or after-work commitments to enable more flexibility to listen to your physical and emotional needs during this time,