This Weekend’s Switch To Standard Time May Affect Your Sleep Pattern

Get ready to make the rounds this weekend.

No, we’re not talking about the malls or the supermarkets. We’re talking about every clock in your home.

It’s the semi-annual switch when we go back to Standard Time, which will make your mornings much brighter and your evenings much darker.

The first real sure sign of winter comes when clocks go back an hour at 2am Sunday morning. The big change occurs just before you go to bed Saturday night.

It means most of us get an extra hour’s sleep this weekend, while the shift is 60 minutes longer for those unlucky enough to work overnight.

This year’s annual switch is something of a historic event. It’s the last one in October for the foreseeable future.

Ontario has decided to follow the lead of the U.S. and move the change ahead by several weeks to the first Sunday in November, beginning in 2007.  The shift to Daylight Savings Time will get the reverse treatment, heading from the first Sunday in April to the second Sunday in March.

“We shone a light on daylight saving time and decided staying in sync with the United States makes sense for Ontario,” explains Attorney General Michael Bryant, whose ministry is responsible for the Time Act in this province.

It’s all in an effort to save energy.

But you’ll be expending yours turning back all your timepieces.

Your kitchen and bedroom clocks are obvious, and many of the more modern electronic devices – like your computer and digital satellite receivers – make the switch automatically. But there are a few other machines people always seem to forget about. Among them:

• Microwave ovens,
• VCR or DVD,
• The clock in your car,
• Any automatic timer lights.

And it’s becoming something of a cliche, but it’s a good rule of thumb – when you change the time, change the batteries in your smoke alarms. Even though they’re rarely used, they don’t last forever.

The time switch is still a matter of controversy. Standard Time was originally created by Canada’s own Sir Sandford Fleming to allow for uniform train schedules.

Daylight Time originated in Germany and gradually spread to other non-tropical countries.

Only a few pockets of the country won’t make the change. Most of Saskatchewan is on Standard Time all year, and so are a few areas in B.C., Ontario and Quebec.

The winter shift was designed to provide more daylight as kids were heading to school, and make it safer on the roads for drivers. But some experts note that any time switch affects the human internal body clock, and they tend to see more accidents on the Monday following a time change. So consider yourself warned for the first rush hour after the weekend.

Time Change & Sleep

Experts claim that changing the clocks either backwards or forwards has an effect on most of us who are creatures of habit – especially when it comes to sleep. 

Studies have shown accident rates go up on the Monday after a time change, because we experience a kind of disorientation similar to jet lag.

And while it may be more pronounced when we lose an hour, the same thing happens even if you gain that additional sleep.

A survey by The Better Sleep Council of Canada, a group made up of bed and mattress manufacturers, finds it all adds up.

Its poll shows we collectively lose about 48 million hours of work productivity every week because of a lack of sleep.

It also reveals one in five of us take out our doze-deprived crankiness on fellow workers and that either Monday or Friday is described as the sleepiest day of the week.

So what can you do to prevent the time passages from leaving you out of the wakefulness loop? Here’s what the experts suggest:

Don’t change your habits: Go to bed at your regular time on Saturday night and get up when you normally would. This will maintain your regular sleep cycle, even if your clock says something else.

Don’t let the light in: The sun will appear to be up earlier now that the hours are changed. So keep your curtains closed and your room dark to maintain your normal surroundings. This especially applies to those who get up when the sun rises.

Increase the light: It may seem contradictory with the suggestion above, but it’s not. Allow more light in after you get up, which may increase how alert you feel after you rise for the day. It may help realign your biological clock faster.

Adjust your bedtime early: If you’re a morning person, gradually delay your bedtime and the time you get up for a few days to help your system adjust to the new routine.

If you still feel “jet lagged”: According to the U.S. National Sleep Foundation, if you’re still having trouble adjusting to the change, you can gradually move your bedtime and awakening time by 15 minutes every one to two days.

Better Sleep Council of Canada Survey

Half of all Canadians will sleep the extra hour away, and will wake up an hour later than normal.

26 percent will go to bed an hour later.

A fifth will get up an hour earlier than normal. 

33% feel the extra hour gives them more energy for the day, although that may not last into the following morning.

58% admit a poor night’s sleep affects them the rest of the day.

Only 1% would call in sick after a sleepless night.

30% claim they battle sleepiness at work 3-10 hours a week.

32% feel Monday is the sleepiest day of the week while 20% pick Friday.

38% agree their least productive times are in the afternoon between 2 and 5pm.

To take a sleep quiz,  click here.