Tonight we need to move the clock forward by an hour: here’s what problems we might experience and how to deal with them
Easter night will also be the night of the return to summer time: at 2am on Sunday 31 March, in fact, the hands will need to be moved by an hour and they will become directly 3am. This will allow for an extra hour of light during the day, with significant savings in terms of electricity. On the other hand, having an hour less of sleep is certainly never pleasant, also because the change of time can have unpleasant effects on daily rhythms. This is because summer time impacts the circadian rhythm, a real “internal clock” that regulates the cyclical functions of the body. By moving the hand forward by an hour, the sun rises later, so it is more difficult for the body to enter “waking” mode: in fact, the people most sensitive to the change in time are those who wake up later, who can take up to 3 weeks to get used to the new rhythms.
Mood and concentration
The main problems concern concentration: an “artificial” time zone change can in fact make it more difficult to concentrate during the day. This is because the body automatically tends to “set” itself to a certain time, consequently, the time change can lead to concentration problems in the following days, especially in those who already have difficulty having a regular sleep-wake rhythm. According to a study by the University of Helsinki, the “sleep debt” does not end on the night of the time change or the following night, but can persist for longer and applies both to the transition from solar time to standard time and to the opposite. It also impacts mood, as waking up without enough light in the morning affects your mood throughout the day. In this sense, both time changes have negative effects on mood, since the decrease in daylight hours during the afternoon can influence one’s mood, fueling irritability and apathy, leading to the so-called “seasonal depressive disorder”.
What to do with the return of summer time
In these cases, the best medicine is time, so that the body can adapt to summer time. However, there are some small precautions that can be taken: for example, you can go to sleep a little earlier and wake up about 15 minutes earlier than usual. It is also important to fill up on vitamin D, which is correlated with an improvement in mood, by exposing yourself to the sun as much as possible. Light meals are also recommended, especially in the evening, in order to facilitate digestion and make sleep more linear, avoiding caffeine and theine after dinner.
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