Find Sleep as You Spring Forward for Daylight Savings

Many people greet the onset of daylight savings with mixed feelings. The unofficial end to winter is a welcome sight, but springing forward and losing an hour of sleep can be difficult.

Plan ahead and ease into the time change starting tonight and you can minimize the sleep deprivation. Try to sleep 20 minutes earlier each night until the time change on Sunday, March 13. Do the rest of your daily routines a little earlier each day. Eat dinner 20 minutes early tonight.

Fail to plan ahead and the time change may disrupt your body clock. You may feel restless at bedtime Sunday night and start your work week fatigued.

Night owls may have the most trouble springing forward. Going to bed early can be difficult for evening types. Even 20 minutes earlier than normal might not be achievable. If possible, you may want to try to keep a light schedule of activities, especially for the first few days after the time change.

The good news is, even if your sleep schedule temporarily suffers, the winter blues will start to fade. Those affected by seasonal affective disorder may start to feel more energetic as the sunlight increases and the body’s timing may get back on track.

If your sleep problems don’t go away a few weeks after the time change – or if they’ve been around for months – you may want to seek professional help. A clinical sleep specialist can help you get past insomnia using cognitive behavioral therapy.

Do the Winter Blues Make You SAD?

Only 74 more days until March 20. What some people like to call the "vernal equinox." You know, the first day of spring.

But who’s counting, right? Certainly not people in states like Arizona, Nevada or California. There the sun is always shining. Or so it seems.

For the rest of us, there is winter. For some of us, there is a very long winter. Dark. Gray. Dreary. Cold – miserably cold. And depressing.

This kind of winter depression is called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It may surprise you that SAD has little to do with how cold it is. Instead it’s all about sunlight. Or the lack of it, to be exact.

Sunlight is an important visual cue for your body. It lets your brain know that it is "showtime." Time to be awake, alert and active. Your brain responds by adjusting your body temperature and certain hormone levels.

The long, dark days of winter deprive your body of this signal. As a result, you may feel sluggish, sleepy and depressed. Like other forms of depression, SAD is more common in women.

To combat SAD the best thing you can do is to "see the light." Let your eyes see as much sunlight as possible. Sit by a window during the day. Go outside for a walk on your lunch break.

You can supplement this natural light with bright light therapy. In the morning you sit near a small "light box" at home for a specific length of time. This exposes your eyes to intense but safe amounts of bright light.

A study in 2007 also found that cognitive behavioral therapy can be an effective treatment for SAD. It can be used alone or together with light therapy. Some medications also may help treat SAD.

As with any other medical problem, you should discuss SAD with your doctor. He or she can develop a treatment plan for you.

What are you doing to cope with SAD this winter?