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Starting early to adjust to upcoming daylight savings clock change

eafw

Senior Member
Messages
936
Location
UK
In the UK and Europe we switch to BST in three weeks time. Like lots of us with ME this is very disruptive and going forward is particularly tricky, for me it can't be done in one go at all. (For those in the US and Canada, it's only a week to go, but the staged shift can still work).

In anticipation I've already put my "clock" 15 minutes ahead this week - using a dawn riser to have the light come on early - and will continue until the end of the month when hopefully it will all be back in synch. The light is the key thing here, not a guarantee but hopefully helpful for some.
 

panckage

Senior Member
Messages
777
Location
Vancouver, BC
Melatonin also works great to readjust sleep times. I was going to bed around 1am for a few weeks. Suddenly I had to goto bed at 10pm. Taking melatonin 1 hour before bedtime for about 4 times after the change allowed me to adapt without incident
 

jimells

Senior Member
Messages
2,009
Location
northern Maine
I started the adjustment to Daylight Savings Time last November by not changing my clock. I struggled too hard for too many years to normalize my sleep cycle just to throw it away because some idiot bureaucracy tells me to change my clock.

Since I live only a mile from the eastern edge of the time zone, dealing with two time zones is normal anyway. So in the winter I am in the Atlantic time zone and in the summer I'm in the Eastern.
 

Aurator

Senior Member
Messages
625
My sleep regime is so out of kilter with what are considered normal hours by most people that it won't make any difference to me; they could put the clocks on twelve hours and I wouldn't care. When I was healthy I kept unusual hours anyway, but I was totally happy that way, it didn't interfere with my work or leisure activities, and nobody was inconvenienced as a consequence.

Hours were made for people not people for hours.
 

JES

Senior Member
Messages
1,320
Hours were made for people not people for hours.

Agreed. If each day contained 25 or 26 hours, it would probably be a better fit for me. The sleep rhythm is so off for most of us anyway that it won't make a big difference whatever the clock says. Daylight saving change is meaningless for me.
 

rosie26

Senior Member
Messages
2,446
Location
NZ
I used to dread daylight saving, it had such a huge impact on me. I was irritable and felt physically pushed around by it, like waves of unsettling reverberation inside my body. The last two years I have noticed a change in that it did not affect me as greatly. I think my blood pressure is better, some part of my ME is better and I don't know what it is. Other parts of my ME are worse.

The only mistake I made last daylight saving was that I was slow in changing the clock in the dining room and it kept putting me out all morning and disorientating me. So I will try and change the clocks before I go to bed this time.

I do feel for those of you affected.
 
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barbc56

Senior Member
Messages
3,657
My schedule is so irregular that I don't think it qualifies as a schedule. My circadian rhythm is more than 24 hours so I do the same as @wdb. My children are grown and I'm not working so it's not really that much of a problem.

I do find the blue therapy lights helpful when the clocks are turned back and the days shorter but that's more for SAD.

When I was teacing, the Monday after Daylight Savings Time was one of the worse of the year. Especially for students in middle and high school. For the little kiddies, it was the day after Halloween if it fell on a weekday. Shudder!

Thanks for the reminder. I had no idea we change the time next weekend.
 

Little Bluestem

All Good Things Must Come to an End
Messages
4,930
I started the adjustment to Daylight Savings Time last November by not changing my clock.
I do change my clocks because I still have to interact with the 'real world' somewhat. I just sleep and eat an hour later by the clock, which means really at the same time.
 

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
Just saw this and realized I don't know when the clocks change in the US?! For some strange reason, I am able to get up whenever needed if I have an early morning doc appt but my dtr is impossible to wake up for school and this will have a big impact on her. I also want to make sure I do not mess up the hour of some upcoming appts. Is the change this coming weekend (in the US?)
 

rosie26

Senior Member
Messages
2,446
Location
NZ
How are you @eafw and everyone. We had the change a week ago and I didn't feel the awful inner disequilibrium like I used to feel for many years. It does make me wonder what part of my ME is better. I am worse CNS-wise and in other ways that I can't figure out yet, but something has improved.
 

Effi

Senior Member
Messages
1,496
Location
Europe
@rosie26 and everyone, for the first time I tried to slowly reajust - I started about two weeks before the actual time change, going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. So I was already living on summer time a few days before the actual change. The change went fine this time, hardly felt anything!
 

rosie26

Senior Member
Messages
2,446
Location
NZ
@rosie26 and everyone, for the first time I tried to slowly reajust - I started about two weeks before the actual time change, going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. So I was already living on summer time a few days before the actual change. The change went fine this time, hardly felt anything!
How would you describe how you felt inside when you felt the change in previous years? I couldn't think clear enough to describe it when I last posted. Still not that clear, but for me the change felt like the earth was moving, but inside my body, back and forth. Very unpleasant on a weak body.
 

Effi

Senior Member
Messages
1,496
Location
Europe
How would you describe how you felt inside when you felt the change in previous years?
I would feel more tired and sluggish, and hungry/sleepy at the wrong times, just overall disoriented. The smallest things have a direct influence on my energy/stamina, so that would set me back for a few weeks.

That back and forth thing you're describing sounds interesting, although I'm not sure I really understand what you mean by that...
 

JES

Senior Member
Messages
1,320
I'm surprised anyone with this disease can maintain a sleeping rhythm where they would notice much effects from one hour difference in time. I think most spend so much time in bed that it would make little to no difference. Clock time is a man made concept, CFS patients probably shouldn't live strictly to it unless they are one of the exceptions that manage to maintain a job and have to wake up in the morning because of that.
 

rosie26

Senior Member
Messages
2,446
Location
NZ
I'm surprised anyone with this disease can maintain a sleeping rhythm where they would notice much effects from one hour difference in time. I think most spend so much time in bed that it would make little to no difference. Clock time is a man made concept, CFS patients probably shouldn't live strictly to it unless they are one of the exceptions that manage to maintain a job and have to wake up in the morning because of that.
Even when I had severe insomnia in my severe years I felt the disruption internally. For some of us the change is very significant internally.