Spending a quiet weekend at home may be the best way to counteract your clock rolling forward an hour due to Daylight Saving Time (DST) on Sunday, according to a Calgary-based sleep expert.
“The Monday morning after the time change, many people are pretty tired, plus they’re waking up earlier by an hour than they normally would.”
Samuels is a doctor at the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance, a medical sleep lab and testing facility in Calgary. He said one strategy to deal with the time change is to simply go to bed earlier, however, that may not do the trick for everyone.
“Tonight I am going to go to bed later, because it suits my clock,” Samuels said about his own sleep patterns.
“I am going to lose a little bit of sleep, but that drives some sleep pressure so in the week coming up, I’ll be able to fall asleep a little bit better earlier.”
The yearly DST spring forward routine is a good time to review how we sleep in general, according to Samuels. He said most people are “running around with a five to ten hour sleep debt per week.”
“Sleep is the core of recovery for human beings,” Samuels said.
“People need to pay attention to their sleep and get what they need on a regular basis.”
Experts recommend teenagers and adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation. Samuels said developing a routine is the best way to increase the number of hours you get.
“Maintaining a routine is critically important to sleep health.”