For those of you who are in a part of the world that still has Daylight Savings, then you are audibly groaning with me. As much as you are hopeful for that "extra hour of sleep" the dark reality hits by 4 pm... literally. So what does this actually mean for our overall health? You aren't the only one reaching for the extra coffee at 4 pm to fight the "adjustment" and feeling extra sluggish for the whole week after... it's actually science. If there weren't enough reasons to do away with it - the health implications should be convincing. As you are probably familiar with from previous posts I have shared, our Circadian Rhythm is an incredibly important pulse to our overall health and well-being. It is also known as our "internal clock", and unlike your external man made clock, this one keeps time according to the intricate and intelligent design of all your internal systems. This clock is also directly tied to sunlight and darkness, with our time of highest energy output syncing with the sun and our time for rest and recovery syncing to the nighttime darkness. So, even with that overly generalized description of the Circadian Rhythm, you can see why the time change can have an effect on your overall well-being. The most important negative effect that you want to be aware of and do your best to mitigate, is the effect on your sleep. The one hour shift means you are generally in dark environments with artificial light for much longer during an "awake" phase instead of getting into your wind down and sleep phase. It is like you body received the message "it's dark lets get ready for sleep", but you are still in high gear answering five emails, eating, and pumping out that cortisol. Artificial lights, although necessary to see in the dark are very disruptive for our sleep cycles even in the evening before going to bed. The light from our screens, TV's, and overhead lighting can suppress the production of melatonin, and therefore directly effecting sleep. It is important to note that your sleep preparation starts before you lay down. Not convinced? You ever have a busy day and although you are tired, your mind is so busy all the way up to going to bed, you end up laying in bed unable to fall asleep? Or how about you ate a large meal and watched an action movie right before laying down, and then toss and turn? Other effects which are all directly linked to this misalignment of Circadian Rhythm and sleep cycles altering, are a decrease in serotonin production aka mood shifts, and changes in appetite (for me aka mood shifts). Now, you know I would love to blame everything on Daylight Savings and a full moon, but here's the reality check. You probably had a screwed up Circadian Rhythm before time changed.... Many of our habits (societally reinforced) have greatly impacted our sleep cycles, light exposure, and behaviors. So, we can dive deeper (in other posts) into what you should be doing no matter what time of year it is to get a little more Circadian aligned (also in the Book Club, I have highlighted one of my go to resources on this subject, Circadian Code). But, here you are approaching darkness an hour earlier, what can you do: 1. Try to keep as regular of a bedtime schedule as you can. Even though you "got an extra hour sleep", don't let that keep you up an hour later. This is the first and quickest way to have a really rude Monday morning. 2. Embrace the Darkness - use this sunlight robbery as an opportunity to really develop wonderful "wind-down" night time routines. Remember your sleep prep starts before you lay down. When you lay down your sleep cycles should start. Try to part way with screens before bed, do something that helps tell your body its time to switch from go mode, to relax mode. 3. Embrace the Darkness Pt. 2: Artificial Lights - try to decrease the amount of artificial light exposure after dark. Change lighting to red tones that support versus suppress melatonin production. You can even switch your device screens to a red tone. 4. Meals - Try to keep meal times as regular as you can just like sleep times. Give yourself time between the last meal and night time routines preparing for sleep (again to really dive deeper into your Circadian health - it is recommended to not eat 3-4 hours before sleep). 5. Morning Sunlight - although bros with podcasts popularized this notion (and I quite often recommend to avoid health and wellness advice from bro's with podcasts when possible), the morning sunlight is a Circadian ally. It is most effective to get sunlight exposure 30 - 60 minutes after waking up. Some interesting information more in depth in the articles below! health.harvard.edu/... ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/... webmd.com/... longevity.stanford.edu/... journals.sagepub.com/...