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How to adjust to the time change: Grandma says give your body a week
Meet Grandma and Auntie, and pick the faces that feel like family.
Mm-hm. It's the first Monday after the clocks fell back, and if you woke up at five with your eyes wide open, or felt like it was bedtime by seven last night, you're in good company. Folks all over the country are asking the same thing this morning: how long does it take to adjust to the time change? Grandma's answer is simple. Give your body a week. Don't judge yourself by the first Monday.
An hour doesn't sound like much. But your body keeps its own clock, and it doesn't read the one on the stove. It goes by light, by meals, by when you lie down and get up. Change one and the others take a few days to catch up. Most people feel back to normal in three days to a week. Kids, older folks and early risers sometimes take a little longer, and that's all right too.
Grandma's week for getting used to the time change
- Get morning light first thing. Open the blinds as soon as you're up. Better yet, take your coffee out on the porch or walk to the corner and back. Morning sun is the strongest signal you can give your inner clock that the day has started.
- Keep your wake-up time steady. Pick a time and stick to it all week, weekend included. Your bedtime will settle on its own once your mornings are steady.
- Eat on the new clock. Breakfast, lunch and supper at the regular times by the new hour, even if your stomach argues for a day or two. Meals help set the clock too.
- Push bedtime a little later, not a lot. If you're nodding off at eight, stretch it fifteen or twenty minutes each night. Wash the dishes, fold a load, call your sister. Small steps get there.
- Go easy on the late coffee and the long nap. A short rest after lunch is fine. A two-hour nap at four o'clock will have you staring at the ceiling at midnight.
- Dim the house after dark. Lamps instead of the big overhead light, and put the phone down a while before bed. Let the evening feel like evening.
When it gets dark at five
The other half of the time change is the early dark. Suppertime used to be daylight, and now it's night. That long stretch of evening can feel heavier than it is. So give it a shape. Plan one small thing for each evening this week: a pot of soup, a phone call, a show you save for after the dishes, a walk under the porch lights with a neighbor. Turn on a warm lamp before the sun goes down so the house never feels like it got dark on you.
And get outside while it's light. Even ten minutes at lunch counts. You'll feel the difference by Thursday.
Be patient with yourself this week
If you're foggy, cranky or forgetting things today, that doesn't mean anything is wrong with you. It means it's Monday after the clocks moved. Write down the two or three things that truly have to get done, and let the rest wait. Leave a few extra minutes for the drive, because everybody else on the road is tired too. By next Monday, this hour won't even cross your mind.
Some nights you might be up earlier or later than you'd like and wish somebody was awake to talk to. Ally is there for that. Grandma Grounded is up any hour, and you can type, send a voice note, or call. Tell her about your day or whatever's on your mind. She listens, and she'll be honest with you. Then Auntie Grounded comes in at the end to send you off right.
Auntie's last word
Okay now, listen. Coffee, sunlight, one win before noon. That's the whole plan. Get that light on your face, drink your coffee like you mean it, and knock out one thing before lunch, even if it's just answering that email or making the bed. One win, chile. The rest of the week will follow you. And if today was rough, tomorrow's another shot. I see you.
Talk it through with Grandma
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