September 20, 2005 at 11:01:59 p.m.
In about a week we will be moving into Daylight Savings Time and will move our clocks ahead 1 hour. This is a ritual that has been with us for more than 50 years and was installed to provide a longer daylight enhanced work period during the summer.
However, moving the clock ahead does not change our individual circadian rhythms and no matter what the hands on the clock say, your body is going to say something different. Body circadian rhythms are as individual as ones fingerprints and there are no two exactly alike. These circadian rhythms act like an orchestra conductor, keeping all the body parts operating in harmony with each other. Many things disrupt circadian rhythms; traumatic events, illness, work deadlines, etc. The body tries very hard to adapt to these changes and for the most part, it will succeed. In doing so it puts us back into harmony with ourselves and the world around us.
The change in clock time is an event that disrupts individual circadian rhythms even more dramatically than any emotional event we might encounter. This disruption effects everyone so everyone around you is struggling with the same issue. In this case, more is not better. Everyone is out of sync with themselves and of course, out of sync with other people. Tempers are short and confusion becomes more the order of the day. Your body knows that someone has been messing with Mother Nature and it doesn’t like it!
Well, we can’t change what everyone else in the country is doing but you should give some serious consideration to your own issue. The best way to deal with this forced circadian change is to enter into it in phases. Try to stay on your original time plan initially. That is, on the first day of change, get up one hour earlier than the clock time and go about your morning ritual as you normally would. Do this for 2 days, then add 15 minutes to the start time so now you are rising only 45 minutes earlier than the clock. Keep adding 15 minutes to your schedule every 2 days. At the end of 8 days you will have let the body make a reasonably smooth transition to the current clock time.
This method reduces the hard shock that the body normally undergoes when the clocks are changed for DST. However, in the Fall when the clocks are returned to their normal relationship with the sun, you need not make any adjustment. That relationship is primary to your body and it will make a smooth adjustment. In reality, the summer months of DST is a forced circadian in which your body is doing something it would rather not but unless you want to miss planes and be the only one at work, you need to comply. It may not be what you want but it is just another one of those things that we are forced to do that is not necessarily good for us….what else is new??!…..GT