Preparing for the end of daylight saving time

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Melissa Constanzer and Bernie Rayno spoke with Dr. Alecia Ross, with the Cleveland Clinic, about how you can prepare for the time change this weekend.

Transcript

00:00Dr. Alicia Roth from Cleveland Clinic's Sleep Disorders Clinic joins us right now.

00:07And good morning. We want to know, is it easier for us to return to standard time

00:13than it is to adjust ahead for daylight saving time?

00:16Or does it actually take longer for your body to adjust?

00:21That's the change in the fall that's the easier one to adjust to because we're not losing time

00:27with this change, unlike in March where we're losing time. And overall, our bodies

00:35like standard time better than it likes daylight savings time.

00:41And what are some tips that you can do to make the

00:45adjustment time easier Saturday night into Sunday morning?

00:51This is a much easier change because as most people know, we're falling back.

00:56And so with fall back, we get an extra hour of sleep. But now we're going into the part of the

01:02year where there's less light overall in the morning and in the evening. And so with this

01:11change comes the change also just the natural change in the season. So making sure that you're

01:17getting enough light exposure in the morning is a very good thing as far as adapting to this

01:25change back to standard time. And for some of us that work the mornings, it can be hard to get that

01:31light exposure early on. Are there any other health impacts that you need to watch out for

01:37as we make this switch? This switch in the fall is not as detrimental to our health as the switch

01:46in the spring. Because the switch in the spring, we actually lose an hour of sleep, most people.

01:53And we know that from years, decades of research that that loss of one hour of sleep leads to

02:03higher rates of motor vehicle accidents and heart attacks and strokes. So this is not

02:11the time change that we associate with detrimental health effects.

02:17Okay, this next question is huge. You care about this a lot.

02:20I care about this. We're parents. We have toddlers. Any special advice for parents?

02:26And I'm going to listen to this carefully to help the children's sleep schedule adjust.

02:34Yeah, this is a tough one because I think that we're going back to standard time, but we're also

02:41the natural timing of winter is happening too, with just less light overall. And so,

02:49one of the things that I talk to parents and children about is making sure that you stay

02:55on a regular schedule. Don't necessarily change the child's schedule, both during the day and

03:02at night. And also what I was saying before about making sure that your child is getting

03:08adequate light exposure in the morning time to make sure that their internal clock,

03:13their circadian rhythm, stays aligned with the clock time.

03:19Dr. Alicia Roth with the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic's Sleep Disorders Clinic,

03:25thank you again for joining us this morning.

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