Daylight Savings Time and Sleep
For Sleep Center at Comprehensive, Sleep Awareness Week is a time the practice appreciates for its efforts to educate the public about the benefits of sleep. The week also stresses the fact that if good sleep is not being achieved, there are options available for getting help.
Sleep Awareness Week: March 13-19
Sleep Awareness Week 2022, created by National Sleep Foundation (NSF), runs from March 13th through the 19th. People are invited to get involved by sharing helpful infographics and fun sleep tips, provided by the team at NSF, to help you remind your colleagues, friends, and family about the importance of sleep health.
Launched in 1998, Sleep Awareness Week is NSF’s national public education campaign that celebrates sleep health and encourages the public to prioritize sleep to improve health and well-being. The campaign commences with the beginning of Daylight Savings Time. During Sleep Awareness Week, NSF provides helpful information about the benefits of optimal sleep and how it affects health, well-being, and even safety. NSF also releases its annual Sleep in America® Poll results on the public’s beliefs about a sleep-related topic.
This year’s study is an insightful and surprising one, with an examination on what people in America think about changing clocks twice each year and how their sleep, routines, or moods are affected. The study showed that 70% of people surveyed thought time changes were a problem for them.
For the team conducting the survey, data suggested that changing the clock twice per year is detrimental to circadian rhythms, our overall health and safety, including cardiovascular events, mental health issues, and even traffic fatalities. This has created a gap between what many people think, and what’s actually happening.
The NSF believes that switching to permanent Standard Time would better align bodies to daily sunrise and sunset which influences the natural sleep/wake cycles, also called circadian rhythm. Your body and brain work together in multiple ways to create and regulate this process, and sleep can suffer when your body’s circadian rhythm is out of sync. Most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep, followed by 15 to 17 hours of being awake. The NSF sees sticking to Standard Time the best way to make that happen.
With that not yet happening, the question then becomes how do people overcome the time changes and keep their sleep quality up?
The NSF recommends gradually altering bedtime and wake time by shifting the times forward 10-15 minutes a day for one week leading up to the clock change on the 13th, as well as during the fall when change clocks then. You can also help your body adjust to the change by altering light exposure. Exposing yourself to bright light upon awakening and dimming the lights in the evening, while limiting electronics use, can help with falling asleep earlier.
While Sleep Awareness Week is a helpful time to increase education about sleep, the team at Sleep Center at Comprehensive knows that the formula for great sleep can be far more complex. We know that simple adjustments, like those outlined above, don’t always help during this time of year, or at any time. If this is the case, you should get help from Sleep Center at Comprehensive, which is a full-service sleep disorders center in Nevada.
We have four Board Certified Sleep Medicine physicians on staff, as well as a highly trained team of technicians to evaluate, diagnose and treat patients with sleep disorders. We provide compassionate care, focusing on the needs and concerns of the patient to provide the highest quality of service. We are the only sleep center in Nevada to continually adjust patient’s CPAP machines to ensure their treatment remains comfortable and effective.
How Sleep Center at Comprehensive Can Help
Getting good sleep is important for detoxing and cleansing, and many other factors in life. If you aren’t getting good sleep, be sure to get the help you need by contacting Sleep Center at Comprehensive to get on track for good sleep.
Sleep Center at Comprehensive is a team of board-certified pulmonologists, respiratory therapists, nurse practitioners, and administrative support staff who are dedicated to providing high-quality care to patients with sleep disorders. Sleep Center at Comprehensive is part of Comprehensive Cancer Centers, which provides treatment and management of various lung diseases. Call us at 702-737-5864 for an evaluation.
The content is this post is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.