How to Get Better Sleep This Daylight Savings
How Does Daylight Savings Affect You?
Hanna Kim - 10/11/2018
It’s that time of year again - daylight savings time returns November 3. We “fall back†and gain back the hour we lost in the spring. Many countries adopted daylight savings in the early 1900’s as a way to save energy and spend more time in the sun. Â
Even though we gain an hour back for Daylight Savings come November, many people don’t necessarily experience this shift as extra time for sleep. Dr. Yvonne Harrison’s review in Sleep Medicine shows that for many people, the one hour change results in sleep fragmentation and sleep latency, or the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. It may take some people up to a week to readjust to the change in their sleep patterns. Poor sleep affects performance at work, concentration levels, mood, and more.
Here are a few tips to help you get a complete night’s rest through the week following daylight savings:
Go to Bed at a Consistent Time
Between the craft breweries in RiNo and late-night pizza options in LoDo, it can be hard to want to go to bed early on the weekends. With the upcoming ski season, you may find you need to get up before the sun rises to beat the I-70 traffic up to favorite ski resorts like Breckenridge or Winter Park. Having a consistent sleep-wake cycle makes it easier for our bodies’ internal clock to find a steady rhythm. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time as often as you can so you don’t need a blaring alarm to startle you awake.
Get Offline Before Bedtime
You probably notice your eyes feeling tired and strained the later you stay staring at your screen. Device screens are designed to mimic the sun, and our eyes naturally feel an aversion to light when it’s supposed to be dark. Bluelight from your cell phone, tablet, or television can hurt your sleep patterns, so it is best to turn off devices a couple of hours before bedtime.
If you need to stay up late to do work, consider installing a program like f.lux which adjusts your monitor’s display with warmer colors as it gets later in the day. This helps reduce eyestrain and reduce disruption of sleep patterns due to blue light. Newer devices may also have this setting built into them already.
Massage Helps You Sleep Better
A growing number of research studies show how massage helps you sleep better. Getting a 60-minute massage reduces cortisol levels in the body by 30% on average, which increases production of serotonin. Cortisol is a hormone produced in response to stress, so massage naturally helps alleviate stress and anxiety. Seratonin is an anti-pain hormone, so massage helps soothe the pain associated with many health conditions that can make it difficult for some people to sleep.
Both our RiNo and Highlands studio locations are open from 9 AM to 9 PM each day so you can get a relaxing massage to help you get a good night’s rest.
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Even though we gain an hour back for Daylight Savings come November, many people don’t necessarily experience this shift as extra time for sleep. Dr. Yvonne Harrison’s review in Sleep Medicine shows that for many people, the one hour change results in sleep fragmentation and sleep latency, or the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. It may take some people up to a week to readjust to the change in their sleep patterns. Poor sleep affects performance at work, concentration levels, mood, and more.
Here are a few tips to help you get a complete night’s rest through the week following daylight savings:
Go to Bed at a Consistent Time
Between the craft breweries in RiNo and late-night pizza options in LoDo, it can be hard to want to go to bed early on the weekends. With the upcoming ski season, you may find you need to get up before the sun rises to beat the I-70 traffic up to favorite ski resorts like Breckenridge or Winter Park. Having a consistent sleep-wake cycle makes it easier for our bodies’ internal clock to find a steady rhythm. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time as often as you can so you don’t need a blaring alarm to startle you awake.
Get Offline Before Bedtime
You probably notice your eyes feeling tired and strained the later you stay staring at your screen. Device screens are designed to mimic the sun, and our eyes naturally feel an aversion to light when it’s supposed to be dark. Bluelight from your cell phone, tablet, or television can hurt your sleep patterns, so it is best to turn off devices a couple of hours before bedtime.
If you need to stay up late to do work, consider installing a program like f.lux which adjusts your monitor’s display with warmer colors as it gets later in the day. This helps reduce eyestrain and reduce disruption of sleep patterns due to blue light. Newer devices may also have this setting built into them already.
Massage Helps You Sleep Better
A growing number of research studies show how massage helps you sleep better. Getting a 60-minute massage reduces cortisol levels in the body by 30% on average, which increases production of serotonin. Cortisol is a hormone produced in response to stress, so massage naturally helps alleviate stress and anxiety. Seratonin is an anti-pain hormone, so massage helps soothe the pain associated with many health conditions that can make it difficult for some people to sleep.
Both our RiNo and Highlands studio locations are open from 9 AM to 9 PM each day so you can get a relaxing massage to help you get a good night’s rest.
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