My Love-Hate Relationship with Daylight Savings Time

I love this time of year.  I can smell Spring coming, and when the milder weather arrives, we'll put the windows down in the car, the garden will start to grow, and Jumpin' Jacks will open!  (Woot woot!)  It also means Spring Break and the days start getting longer.  Huzzah!  

There's only one caveat to this blissful Spring Fever mindset:  We move the clocks an hour forward, which means an hour less sleep.  Don't know about you, but the change to Daylight Savings Time on Sunday has thrown everything out of whack.  

I'm not tired at the time I'm "supposed" to wind-down at night, and instead of falling asleep within the first ten minutes, I lay in bed for an hour.  (Only got 4-1/2 hours last night.  Yikes.)  The 4:30am alarm that I was used to is now rousing me at what was 3:30am last week.  (No wonder the gym is empty.)  As I sit here writing this, I'm chugging down the largest coffee the cafeteria sells because I could so fall asleep at my desk right now.  (Caffeine is my friend today.)  Can you relate?

So what's really going on?  Here is an explanation of why we have trouble adjusting and some interesting facts about the biological impact of Daylight Savings Time:
 


Wiz Fipple and His Circadian Rhythms 
(Couldn't resist...guess I'm punchy from
serious lack of sleep)

Our circadian rhythm, nature's built-in mechanism that affects our behavior, is triggered primarily by the amount of light and darkness in our environment.  Changes in daylight hours disrupts the release of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep, and interrupts our circadian body clocks. Interference with the body's natural processes can impair memory, concentration and performance, and produce symptoms often compared to jet lag.

A highly-respected expert on "chronobiology" (the study of circadian rhythms), Prof. Till Roenneberg's studies show that our internal body clocks never adjust to gaining an "extra" hour of sunlight at the end of the day during daylight saving time.  "The consequence of that is that the majority of the population has drastically decreased productivity, decreased quality of life, increasing susceptibility to illness, and is just plain tired," Roenneberg said.

Roenneberg goes on to say that light doesn't have the same affect on the body in the morning as it does in the evening.  "More light in the morning would advance the body clock, and that would be good. But more light in the evening would even further delay the body clock," he said.

This stuff is starting to make sense, but what do we do about it?

   
(Dang...My eyelids feel like lead right now.)






Several experts offer suggestions for dealing with the effects of the time change:
1.  Get your exercise or workout done early in the day
2.  Avoid coffee in the afternoon; drink decaf green tea instead
3.  Resist the urge to spend that extra hour of daylight outdoors; get inside and prepare for night time
4.  Drink a cup of chamomile or other calming herbal tea before bed
5.  Avoid alcohol (it may help you fall asleep, but it's actually a stimulant that will keep you from sleeping well)
6.  Turn off the TV, cell phone and computer an hour before bedtime (the light from the screen can disrupt your body's ability to relax)
7.  Make your bed as comfortable and cozy as possible and keep your bedroom cool and dark
8.  Darken your windows (with shades or room-darkening drapes) to keep early morning light out of your sleeping area
9.  Practice deep breathing after tucking yourself in
10.  Once you wake up, throw open the drapes or sit near a bright window during breakfast to reset your inner clock

Geez...I can't stop yawning! (Not pretty.  Trust me on this one.  See above.)  I'll give these tips a try and see whether they lessen my sluggishness.  Are you with me?  What've we got to lose? 

Guess I better throw out that cuppa coffee, get my butt outta this chair and take a damn walk around campus. 

QUESTION:  How has turning the clocks forward affected you?  What helped you get through the first few days?

Additional source:  http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Educatio/Factsheet_CircadianRhythms.htm

All images courtesy of Google Images, unless otherwise noted.


(c) Robyn M. King. All Rights Reserved.

Life Fundamentals. . . . . . . . . . . . . According to Bruce Lee

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Please don't tell me you're too young to know who Bruce Lee was.

You are?  Dang. <heavy sigh> 

Bruce Lee was a famous martial artist and actor who sparked the first wave of interest of Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1960’s and 70’s.

But besides being an awesome fighter and iconic figure, Lee's training and lifestyle gave him much wisdom and a positive, proactive approach to life.  His words still ring true today.

Here are five of my favorite Bruce Lee fundamentals.

1.  “As you think, so shall you become.”

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As yourself these questions: Do my thoughts match what I'm doing and feeling? Do they really coincide with my plans for my life and how I view myself?

No?  Houston, we have a problem.

Your thoughts control your outcomes.  For example, if you think you'll be successful at a task, you will be.  If you believe that you are stupid and will never amount to anything, that will come true, too. 

Recommendation:  Write "As you think, so shall you become" on Post-Its and place them on every mirror, on your dashboard, on your computer monitor at work.  This may take some getting used to, but stick with it.  Your thoughts must match who you are and what you want.

2. “If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”

If you want to improve your life, it’s tempting to want to add more to it--experiences, material things, money.  One problem with this mindset is that having more often contributes to actually making your life smaller, because just the quest for more creates more stress and anxiety.

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Removing the not-so-important clutter, activities, tasks and thoughts frees up time and energy for you to do more of what you really want to do. As the clutter in your outer world decreases, the clutter in your inner world also tends to decrease...which has the added benefit of making it easier to actually enjoy whatever you're doing while you are doing it.

Adding more thoughts and thinking things over for the ten-thousandth time may create a sense of security. It’s also a good way to procrastinate and to avoid taking that leap you know you should take. The vicious cycle of "think-plan-question-rethink-create a new plan-question" gives us an excuse to not take action.

Recommendation:  Replace that vicious-thinking-cycle habit with the habit of just-do-it.

3.  “To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person.”

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The one person who is the hardest to get to really know may be yourself.  A good approach to really learn more about who you are is to study yourself in interactions with other people. How others act and react in these interactions can teach you a lot over time. Realizing how you yourself act and react adds to the self-learning process.

What you see, feel and hear in other people may be a reflection of you, and that can be a difficult reality check to accept.   The things you learn by holding up that mirror may not always be pleasant, but what you see can be enlightening and offers the opportunity to do and be better.  

Recommendation:  Get very clear on who you are, who you want to be, and take action to make those two match.

4.  “To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.”

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It’s easy to get locked into a reactive mindset; you just follow along with whatever is happening. You do what the people around you do. You react to whatever is going on.  This way of thinking and behaving means you embrace an "external locus of control," that you believe you have no say in what happens to you because everything except you has control.

This way of being doesn’t feel too good. You tend to feel powerless and allow whatever happens to happen.

Recommendation:  Embrace an "internal locus of control" as a more useful and pleasurable way of living.  Take the bull by the horns and be proactive.  Create opportunities despite the circumstances around you.  Make things happen.  This sense of taking charge feels better and provides better results, but is more difficult to do.  It can also feel really scary when you take a leap of faith for something better.  But living proactively offers many rewards...including feeling in charge of your life.

5.  “Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”

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Just being yourself can be hard at times.  For example, you feel that the real you wouldn't fit in so well where you currently work, so you put on a "work mask" and go home exhausted and irritable every evening.  You believe that  your genuine self would never appeal to that really cute guy you believe is out of your league, so you create a false version to get his attention.  Then you wonder how long you'll be able to keep this up.

You are not meant to be an actor playing a role.  Your authentic self...the wonderful, valuable person you are in spite of any shortcomings...is the only version you should be sharing with the world.  Anyone who doesn't appreciate or respect the real you has no business being in your life.

Recommendations:  Be yourself.  Accept yourself.  Value yourself.  Forgive yourself.  Bless yourself.  Express yourself.  Trust yourself.  Love yourself.  Empower yourself.  

Source:  The Positivity Blog
(c) Copyright 2015 Robyn King. All Rights Reserved.

Are you up for a {wellness} challenge?

(c) Robyn M. King. All Rights Reserved.