Discarding Daylight Savings Tim

In the “Hacking Your Sleep Schedule” module, we identified that ~10pm is the optimal bedtime for most people. Having said that, the problem with our modern society is that there are two different versions of 10pm: There is the ‘real’ 10pm, and there is the ‘artificial’ 10pm inserted as part of daylight saving time adjustments in Spring and Summer. It is important to disregard daylight savings time considerations when making bedtime plans for 10pm. Remember, If you go to bed after “the real 10pm”, you’ll have trouble falling asleep. Your brain will switch from “let’s get drowsy” mode to “there must be an emergency because you’re still up after dark” mode.

The Link Between Daylight and Weight Gain

In “Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar and Survival” by T.S. Wiley, the author documents (with endless scientific notes) the link between light and carbohydrate consumption. The more light you experience, the more you crave starches and sugars.

It adds up. As you stay up past the witching hour foods like chocolate, ice cream, cereal and toast start to look mighty good. Cereal has even been promoted as the “perfect bedtime snack.” Dinner was several hours ago, and you are hungry again; the body is confused. It thought it was time for sleep, but it’s still “lights on.” And at 10pm, things start to rev up  and your body wants to refuel.

Changing Bedtimes With The Seasons

Our ancestors, most historians agree, slept more in the Winter. Summer was spent preparing for the Winter: growing and harvesting food, building, trading, storing, etc. The cold and snowy winters with shorter days limited what they were able to do. So why not catch up on sleep?

Even today, some sleep experts recommend sleeping as much as 9 hours during Winter months. But this may be going to an opposite extreme, and does not lend itself to careers that we can’t manipulate according to the seasons.But if it’s in our DNA and our body has been built for it, then we may want to rest a little more in the Winter, when there’s less to do outside.

Wiley also argues that the extra light of Summer leads to more eating. This was beneficial in the past as our ancestors were more active in the Summer (e.g. farming). This instinct was also needed to gain some extra fat to prepare for the colder, leaner Winter months. Winter traditionally means fewer fresh food options, less activity, more sleeping, and less light, which results in the body requiring less food.

Adjusting To An Earlier Bedtime

Getting to bed between 9-10pm will help produce far better sleep than getting to bed between 10-11pm. Sticking to this commitment can be difficult for people who have built habits of staying up past 10.

Changing your sleep patterns only works if you do it consistently. Going to bed early just one day a week will likely throw off your entire sleep schedule. And if you’re used to sleeping until midnight or 1am, getting up at 6am might not go over very well either. 

It is best for you to develop habit work to follow the same bedtime every day, or at least 6 days of the week.

Start by purposefully going to bed 30 minutes earlier and waking up 30 minutes earlier. Once you are comfortable with this routine, keep adjusting your sleep schedule 30 minutes at a time until you are able to reach the 9pm-10pm window.

Reducing Stimulants

If you are unable to easily and naturally fall asleep by 10pm, avoid consuming any coffee, tea, chocolates, or sugars at or after dinner. These foods and drinks contain caffeine and act as a stimulant that can keep you awake when you should be sleeping. 

Depending on your sensitivity to caffeine, you may even need to avoid such stimulants earlier in the day. And unfortunately, some people will need to avoid them altogether. Your body frame and weight can also affect how stimulants function and are digested. For example, people who weigh less may find that consuming stimulants can affect them more because of how quickly their body makes them available for use.