Genesis Sleep Medicine Department Provides Tips for Daylight Saving

MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio- The clocks will be springing forward this Sunday for daylight saving and this means one less hour of sleep. 

Sleep medicine physician assistant at Genesis, Alex Bierut, said on average people sleep about 40 minutes less due to the time change.

“To prep for that you have to be prepared to make sure you set your phones, your locks in the house so you don’t miss any events you might have, but also just work on a good consistent routine each night,” Bierut said. “We found that it might be an adjustment period, it might be late at night and you might not be able to fall asleep, but if you can kind of power through a day or two when you might feel like you have trouble sleeping, stick with a good routine and we think you’ll adjust pretty well and get things going well.”

For some, losing an hour of sleep doesn’t feel like a big deal, but Bierut stated how sleep affects all aspects of medicine, so if sleeping measures aren’t met, it causes other parts of the body to work overtime. 

Bierut said the goal is to get a good deep sleep, which can optimize the overall health.

“So most recently in today’s day and age, it’s a lot of people just staying on their phones and looking at screens late at night. Your body has something called your circadian rhythm and when your eyes sense that there’s this light, especially the bright light coming from your phone, tablet, or TV then it triggers your body to stay awake,” Bierut said.

To achieve good sleep hygiene, Bierut recommends to start an efficient sleep routine now following up to Sunday. 

He said try to go to sleep an hour earlier than normal, sleep in a dark room for relaxation and no caffeine consumption close to bedtime.