Daylight Saving - What to do with that spare hour?
Each year as Daylight Saving comes to an end – our clocks go back on Sunday 6 April – the big question I like to ponder is, “What shall I do with that extra hour?”
Because you want to make use of it, right? We spend so much of our lives wishing there were more hours in the day, so if there’s a bonus sixty minutes, you want it to count.
And we can get creative because this transition is easier than the beginning of Daylight Saving when we lose an hour. Springtime sees us frantically trying to convince the kids (and ourselves) to sleep earlier so the morning alarm doesn’t freak us out. It seems to take a good week before our body clock finally agrees with the one on the bedside table.
Indeed, studies have found an association between the transition into daylight saving and short-term risk of all kinds of things from heart attacks, stroke and car accidents to just being grumpy. And late for everything, obviously.
The good news is there are fewer negative repercussions associated with the change back in autumn, though people still report feeling a tad sluggish in those first days.
But cheer up! There’s that extra hour to play with on the Sunday. You could spend it on sleep – I’m not here to judge - but let’s consider other awesome things you can do with the sixty minutes you don’t usually have.
Bake a cake. Read a short story. Listen to the whole of Stevie Wonder’s excellent album, “Songs in the Key of Life”. Watch one third of the first of the Lord of the Rings movie. Or better, a full episode of The White Lotus including time for a loo break.
In just one hour you can get nearly all your daily steps in. If you walk fast. And maybe shorten your stride. Or do a “quick check of Facebook” and get lost in video tutorials demonstrating how to wear your jumper upside down and do your shirt up with a hair tie. Or use that hour to pop out and buy a top that fits to begin with.
More usefully: adjust all the clocks in your house. Don’t forget the microwave because I’m not sure we’re aware how much we rely on that one for knowing when to stop faffing about in the kitchen and head out the door. Once out the door, spend the rest of the hour finding your car’s instruction manual and re-set the dashboard clock.
An added bonus of all this frantic activity is you will exhaust yourself and go to bed super early, like about four in the afternoon, and therefore wake up before Monday morning’s alarm feeling refreshed and only mildly confused.
Experts tell us to avoid alcohol and eat a healthy diet (snore, don’t they always) and to avoid stressful situations and making big decisions for the first few days of the time change.
My non-expert advice is to wear a watch even if you don’t usually, and keep it on at least until what your body tells you and the clocks tell you starts to match up. If it feels like time to pick the kids up, and it’s almost 3pm, you have arrived.
If this doesn’t happen, bear in mind Daylight Saving starts again in September so at least you’ll be ahead of the curve at that point. And so will the clock in my car because in my current state of confusion I cannot remember where the manual is.