Protect Your Health — Ease Your Way into the Time Change
On Monday, it seems like everyone I spoke to at work was singing the same tune — “I’m so tired from losing an hour of sleep.”
I don’t know about you, but I was seriously dragging on Monday and that’s pretty unusual for me. The kind of tired where I feel like I need a caffeine boost — always a tell tale sign something is off since I hardly ever drink caffeine.
But science does suggest that we’re not making these ideas up, our body does need time to adjust. And in fact, it can take a few weeks to adjust to a one hour time difference. I loved the post my friend and colleague Paula talked about earlier this week about the importance of really nurturing ourselves during the transition. She mentioned some great tips for taking care of ourselves, like getting extra sleep, going to bed early and being more patient with ourselves and others.
I couldn’t agree more and I like to think of the time change as an opportunity to slow down and take better care of ourselves, literally, protecting our health. It’s a fact that most people are sleep deprived — just too much to do and handle and sleeping takes a back seat. So the time change offers up possibility to listen to our bodies and take note about what we need — more sleep, less activity, and more nurturing and self-care. And ultimately, it’s about how we choose to treat ourselves.
In essence, it’s one more way to tune in, something I mentioned in Monday’s post about shifting your health priorities — this is a perfect example.
How have you been handling the time change? Do you feel noticeably more tired? What specific steps will you take to take better care of yourself this week?
Filed under: Body wisdom, Optimal Health, Self-care, Slowing Down
Morning Wendy – You hit the nail on the head with this post! I love your suggestion to take the Daylight Savings transition and use it as a time to pause and tune in to ourselves. That’s a great idea – and a wonderfully empowering, nurturing choice. Thanks for the excellent insights that you share here – I love my daily visits to Healthy Endeavors!
It never used to be an issue for me; now that I’m getting older, I felt it for the first time…I’ve had trouble getting to sleep and waking up. In New Mexico, where I live, there’s been some talk about eliminating Daylight Savings in the state. I’d be for it…the time shift stresses the body. Research has shown that this time shift actually harms people; for instance, the number of heart attacks goes up. People are tired, so car accidents are more likely. Why not just allow time to happen naturally?
Your post is very interesting for me since I drink special water and nutrients that seems to erase any time changes even with jet lag. . . .so I didn’t really notice any adjustments to my body clock needed over the weekend.
Our bodies are electrical and need the proper “life force” nutrients that keep the meridians balanced through electro-magnetically charged water and proper nutrition. I take several supplements that contain this life-force Signal Protein and one of my favorites is Pearl Collagen Nutrients.
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