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March 8, 2026<\/p>\n
4 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Daylight saving time hit you like a brick? Here\u2019s how to cope better<\/p>\n Losing an hour of sleep to daylight saving time is not good for you, but there are ways you can help yourself bounce back<\/p>\n By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/span><\/p>\n Catherine McQueen via Getty Images<\/p>\n When it comes to health, daylight saving time, frankly, sucks. It\u2019s not just that we lose an hour of sleep (which is, in itself, harmful), it\u2019s that every day spent in daylight saving time takes a toll on our body, says Emily Manoogian, a senior staff scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, who studies the body\u2019s biological clocks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole time we\u2019re on daylight saving time, we\u2019re misaligning our environment with our bodies,\u201d Manoogian says. \u201cIt\u2019s not the one-hour shift that makes everyone feel bad. It\u2019s this chronic disruption that makes us worse versions of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Experts\u2014including Manoogian\u2014typically recommend trying to shift your daily schedule before the clocks change to align with daylight saving time, perhaps by eating a half hour earlier or going to bed 15 minutes before your usual time. But that\u2019s just not possible for some, and others might forget about the forthcoming clock change. Others still can be more profoundly affected by the lost hour of sleep, much in the same way that some people are less able to cope with jet lag.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Jet lag is a good way to think about daylight saving time, says Manoogian, who is also a member of the Center for Circadian Biology at the University of California, San Diego, and public outreach chair at the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms. We don\u2019t just lose an hour of sleep; our circadian system is also thrown out of whack. The circadian system refers to the body\u2019s suite of clocks\u2014every cell with DNA has a clock, and each of these clocks feeds back into one another. Our brain acts as a kind of Time Lord that uses light and other sensory cues to coordinate our behavior, such as when we eat and sleep, and that regulates the timing of all the clocks.<\/p>\n Springing forward puts the body an hour behind. \u201cYou\u2019re forcing your body to do things it\u2019s not ready to do yet,\u201d Manoogian says. Take eating breakfast: For days after daylight saving comes into effect, your glucose regulation may be compromised because your body\u2019s clocks sense that you are fasting and still asleep when you are, in fact, awake. If you eat first thing, your blood sugar levels could rise higher than usual. Cortisol, the brain hormone that wakes you up naturally, may peak after you\u2019ve risen, too, so you could feel moody and stressed before that hormone kicks in.<\/p>\n Foggy thinking and poor food choices are also common reactions to the time change, she says. For folks who find themselves feeling a little out of it in the days after daylight saving, making sure that you are getting outside, preferably into the sunshine, exercising and going to bed earlier for a week or so can help combat some of these ill effects. Sleep in if you can, she says, and don\u2019t force yourself to do anything too strenuous in the mornings for a few days. \u201cDon’t push yourself too hard,\u201d she stresses.<\/p>\n Putting our body\u2019s clocks out of sync can be deadly, Manoogian says. \u201cOne of the more common things that we see in daylight saving time is an increase in heart events,\u201d she explains. Some research has found an increase in the number of heart attacks and strokes in the days after the clocks spring forward, possibly as a result of the misaligned cortisol. For people who are already at higher risk, \u201cthat misalignment and forcing your body to do something before it\u2019s ready can be enough to tip it over,\u201d she says. The lack of sleep can also lead to more car accidents.<\/p>\n Ultimately the body needs a few days to catch up to the changed time. Early birds who are already attuned to waking up early might have an easier time adjusting than night owls, Manoogian says. Different parts of the body tend to make the shift at different speeds, she says: the brain and other vital organs such as the heart tend to catch up to the new time faster than nonvital organs and tissues, including your muscles and gut.<\/p>\n Food plays an important role in this process, she says: \u201cThis can also be a good time to reassess when you should be eating because a lot of us eat too early or too late.\u201d Giving yourself an hour after you wake up before you eat and a couple of hours to digest before bedtime can help regulate your circadian rhythms. Of course, people who need to stick to a schedule, particularly school-age children, don\u2019t have the luxury of taking their time in the morning.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for all of us forced to go through daylight saving time, there are no documented health benefits from the time change, Manoogian says. \u201cThe whole time we\u2019re on it, we\u2019re hurting ourselves just a little bit, and it affects some groups more than others,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. Scientific American<\/span> has served as an advocate for science and industry for 180 years, and right now may be the most critical moment in that two-century history.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been a Scientific American<\/span> subscriber since I was 12 years old, and it helped shape the way I look at the world. SciAm <\/span>always educates and delights me, and inspires a sense of awe for our vast, beautiful universe. I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" March 8, 2026 4 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm Daylight saving time hit you like a brick? Here\u2019s how to cope better Losing an hour of sleep to daylight saving time is not good for you, but there are ways you can help yourself bounce back By Claire Cameron edited by Jeanna Bryner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[17520,7255,13202,613,70,3818,286],"class_list":{"0":"post-46173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-brick","9":"tag-cope","10":"tag-daylight","11":"tag-heres","12":"tag-hit","13":"tag-saving","14":"tag-time"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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