Mondays after Daylight Saving Time are hard for a large population of the world…particularly in the Spring when your circadian rhythm tells you the 5 am alarm is really only 4 am and when you find yourself lying in bed trying to force yourself to go to sleep an hour before your body is ready. It is not our imagination: DST is hard on us.
Each year the sleep deprivation caused by DST costs the US $275 million and is responsible for more than 30 deaths according to a 2017 study in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. Emotionally and physically, it is hard for our bodies to adjust but the industrialized world seems to be stuck on the idea so we’re left to find ways to cope.
Clock time is a concept implemented thousands of years ago to help coordinate and plan certain activities. Initially, it was directly tied to the sun (think sundials) and activities happened within nature’s time. The sun came up and the day began; the sun set and the day ended. Our bodies loved this because the change was incremental and small.
We are a part of nature so, maybe, we should mimic nature and let this change happen gradually. Personally of course. In the month leading up to the time change, adjusting the alarm in 5-minute increments would give the body a chance to change without the shock.
After all, “Nature does not hurry yet everything is accomplished.” – Lau Tzu
Shay
“Be the one to care because there is no guarantee that anyone else will.”
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