Spring Forward Smarter in 2025

Getting the Jump on Daylight Savings

On Sunday, March 9, most people in the U.S. and Canada will turn their clocks forward one hour. On March 30, the U.K. and Europe make the same adjustment. (If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, this article explains the change you’re about to undergo.)

This change, and the time period that passes between March and the return of the clocks in November, is known as daylight saving time.

The period between November and March when daylight saving time is not in effect is known as daylight standard time.

This time change in the U.S. comes in the midst of a full-fledged constitutional crisis.

This is important, because the “shock and awe” strategy of the Trump administration is designed to send our nervous systems into overdrive and fracture our attention just as the more difficult of the annual transitions approaches.

This column will cover the effects of moving the clocks forward, train the lens on attention and motivation, and offer practical tools for managing the effects of the change in your mind, brain, body, and social world.

Effects of Moving the Clock Forward on the Mind, Brain, and Body

The artificial adjustments to clock time in both the spring and fall affect approximately 1.6 billion people worldwide. The “spring forward” transition, however, has particularly disastrous impact.

Shifting from standard time to daylight saving time (DST) correlates with multiple changes in human behavior. In the first two days that follow the change, researchers have found a significant increase in fatal traffic accidents—by as much as 30 percent—and a short-term (nearly 6%) rise in workplace injuries.

A surge also occurs in many illnesses.

There is a 4% increase in heart attacks and symptoms such as atrial fibrillation, and a greater incidence of strokes. At the same time, there is a rise in missed medical appointments, emergency room visits, and return visits to the hospital. These changes occur only during the spring transition from standard time to daylight saving time.

Moving the clocks forward one hour causes sleep loss and a resulting sleep debt. This results in tiredness, but also problems at the cellular level. It alters gene expression in cardiac myocytes, alters the epigenetic profile of core clock genes, and increases inflammatory markers. It lowers vagal tone, which increases heart rate and blood pressure and reduces heart rate variability.

Our circadian clocks regulate mood. Daylight saving time increases already-existing mood disturbances, and causes a rise in suicide.

These are not minor changes. In 2020, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) wrote a position paper that advocated for the permanent adoption of standard time (the one after we “fall back,” which keeps us in tune with our circadian rhythms.

The Impact of Springing Forward on Attention and Motivation

As many of you know, I’m deeply neurodivergent (AuDHD) and therefore pay close attention to the sensory, emotional, and social factors that shape attention and motivation. (For more on neurodivergence, see the topic index here.)

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental syndrome that affects executive functioning, the capacity for inhibition, and emotional regulation.

ADHD symptoms include:

• difficulties with inhibition, including thoughts, emotions, and movements

• impulsivity on cognitive, emotional, and physical levels

• cognitive challenges, particularly in executive functioning

• emotional dysregulation, e.g. a tendency to broadcast feelings and reactions readily

• in adults, hyperactivity is often internalized and resembles busyness, restlessness, multi-tasking, and a difficulty not giving in to countless random impulses that pop into mind

• challenges with sustained attention and distraction control (secondary to disinhibition)

Researchers believe that anomalies in the brain’s dopamine networks contribute to ADHD.

Dopamine is a neuromodulator, which means that it affects the behavior of other neurotransmitters. And it regulates the processes of motivation and reward-seeking. (And as this piece explored, recent discoveries have pinpointed a novel role for dopamine in generating movement.)

What’s less well known about dopamine: It plays a role in regulating our sleep-wake cycles. Consider these dopamine-circadian connections:

• Dopamine function is rhythmic and regulated by the circadian clock

• Dopamine, in turn, helps maintain the proper rhythmic cycle of clock genes and proteins

• Dopamine levels in plasma follow a circadian rhythm

• Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area activate on a circadian cycle

• Dopamine is expressed in brain regions (think the striatum, midbrain, and hypothalamus) that support circadian rhythms

ADHD is also a circadian rhythm issue, and here’s why:

Many people with ADHD report delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS). This results in delayed “dim light melatonin onset,” the melatonin release that occurs in neurotypical people in response to dim light or night (and helps us fall asleep). They tend to have more evening alertness—and, as a result of these factors, later wake times.

When we set the clocks forward by an hour, we don’t just get (as some people say) an hour less of sleep.

We get more light at the end of the day, which can delay the production of melatonin that helps us fall asleep.

And we get less light in the mornings, which can decrease levels of the serotonin that boosts our mood and the dopamine that gets us moving, seeking reward and surprise, and—as I like to call it—regulating the global desire and agency we need to feel alive.

Adding to the mix, losing an hour of sleep can also compromise our capacity to inhibit distracting influences, giving even neurotypical people a case of attentional fracture.

Powerful Tools for Managing the Time Change

Here are some powerful tools that both neurodivergent folks and our neurotypical community can employ to manage the time change, boost your motivation, global desire and sense of agency, and capacity to inhibit distractions.

The following recommendations are listed in order of importance and accessibility for neurodivergent folks, but will work for everyone. As you’ll see, the recommendation for wake times is followed by all the interventions that will make the hardest change for those with ADHD—the earlier sleep time—more fluid.

Adjust Sleep + Wake Times Gradually Over the Next Week. If you can, use the next six evenings and mornings to make gradual changes to your sleep-wake schedule. To manage the abrupt time change (and light change), set your alarm clock to wake up 10 minutes earlier each morning.

Get More + Earlier Morning Light. During the first week after the time change, try to get at least 15 minutes of exposure to morning light. (This will “push” your circadian clock to wake you up earlier.) This doesn’t have to be a “formal” outing; it can take the form of walking to the bus stop and waiting. Avoid wearing sunglasses; the light-registering cells that need to “register” the morning light are at the bottom of the retina. Note: It’s especially important to get this early light every day, if you can, for a week following the time change.

Adjust Your Caffeine Intake. Consider less caffeine even if you think you need it. Avoid caffeine intake for 2 hours post-waking; this allows the adenosine receptors that build sleep pressure to do their thing so you can go to bed earlier. If possible, try to complete caffeine intake by 9:00 a.m. Caffeine has a 14-hour half-life, so stopping early allows it to leave your system more fully.

Practice Restorative Yoga or Fascia Work Daily for Seven Days. If you can, build in a 15-to-20-minute restorative practice before lunch. (If you prefer a guided practice, here’s a restorative practice and a fascia play practice you can try.)

Turn the Lights Down Low. Beginning in the early evening, be as rigorous as you can about lowering the lights around your home. It helps to pay particular attention to the overhead lights, which will stimulate the light-sensitive areas at the bottom of the retina (the same ones you want to get that early morning light). You can also try replacing any bright white lights with floor-sitting red bulbs if you have them, or use candlelight or a soft nightlight.

Limit Screen Time. Computer and phone screens emit blue light, which interferes with melatonin and exacerbates the evening alertness that many of us feel. For the next six days, turn off your computer and phone ten minutes earlier each day. Try to do so 2 hours before bed if possible, allowing a bigger no-screen window than you ordinarily would.

Do an Evening News + Social Media Fast. In the U.S. right now, I’m aware of an increased vigilance and a sense that I don’t want to “miss anything.” If I start scrolling after I’ve begun my pre-sleep routine, it’s much harder to stop. You can try putting an evening post-it on your phone reminding you not to go onto social media, or turn it on grayscale once it’s time to power off.

Lengthen Your Pre-Sleep Routine. A pre-sleep routine is one of the most effective interventions I’ve used to help myself get to bed early. Consider starting one hour before bed. You can do connective tissue work, self-massage with oils, restorative postures, journal, and/or listen to music.

Here are two bonus interventions you can also try, designed to give a boost to folks with ADHD (or the temporary time-change-induced variation):

Add Small Amounts of Morning Eustress. I build in small amounts of eustress, the kind of stress that’s beneficial for well-being, to prime dopamine release. I do this in the morning to increase wakefulness, and because cortisol surges are best in the morning, in keeping with cortisol’s 24-hour cycle.

My favorite method for doing so is cold water immersion. If you’ve never tried cold therapy, you can start by immersing your hands and face alternately in a bowl of ice water for 30 seconds. Then increase by 10 seconds or so each day.

Calibrate Your Enteric Nervous (Digestive) System. Remarkably, digestion has a kind of “memory” which prompts your gut to release digestive enzymes at your normal mealtimes each day. Just as you’re doing with your sleep and wake times, you can begin recalibrating your digestive system 6 days in advance.

Take your first meal of the day 10 minutes later each day until you’re back to eating at the chronological (clock) time you’re used to. If you have breakfast at 8:00 a.m., for example, begin on the first day by eating at 8:10, the second day at 8:20, and so on. This is ideal, because a ten-minute change is well within the timeframe of your digestive processes.

If you begin a week in advance, you can do the same—eat 10 minutes later each day—with your evening meal. And because the time change has an inflammatory effect on the body that includes digestion, avoid inflammatory foods during the preparation period, particularly at night.

If you include fermented foods in your diet, you can increase them during this time period, particularly at your evening meal. If you don’t use them but would like to try them, I’d advise doing so in very small amounts. (The same is true for adding probiotics before your meals.)

What happens if, despite the best of intentions, you don’t have the ability to adjust your mealtimes by ten minutes a day in the week leading up to the time change? Here’s what I did last year when things snuck up on me. For the first few days of the time change, I had my first meal a full hour later in the day; this is what my gut microbiome “expected,” and when it was primed for digestion.

The Why Behind The What

Folks with autism, ADHD, other forms of neurodivergence, and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s often struggle with the time change. My take is that this happens not just because of the disruption in routine, but because our brains pick up on being out of sync with the natural world. The sense of being “off” is familiar, and we typically attribute it to ourselves.

For this reason, I remind myself that it’s the artificial, capitalism-driven change in clock time, not my body, that’s out of sync. When I can plan the above interventions, they support me in recovery, but they don’t take away that feeling of being not in step with time.

And they help support my attention, motivation, and global desire, which underpin all forms of social resistance.

May this transition be fluid and full of ease for you.

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Sources:

These include a significant increase in fatal traffic accidents: Prats-Uribe, A., Tobías, A., & Prieto-Alhambra, D. (2018). Excess Risk of Fatal Road Traffic Accidents on the Day of Daylight Saving Time Change. Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 29(5), e44–e45. https://doi.org/10.1097/EDE.0000000000000865

We also see a short-term (nearly 6%) rise in workplace injuries: Barnes, C. M., & Wagner, D. T. (2009). Changing to daylight saving time cuts into sleep and increases workplace injuries. The Journal of applied psychology, 94(5), 1305–1317. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015320

This includes a higher risk of heart attacks: Crnko, S., Du Pré, B. C., Sluijter, J. P. G., & Van Laake, L. W. (2019). Circadian rhythms and the molecular clock in cardiovascular biology and disease. Nature reviews. Cardiology, 16(7), 437–447. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-019-0167-4. See also: Manfredini, R., Fabbian, F., Cappadona, R., De Giorgi, A., Bravi, F., Carradori, T., Flacco, M. E., & Manzoli, L. (2019). Daylight Saving Time and Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of clinical medicine, 8(3), 404. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm8030404. See also: Janszky I, Ljung R. Shifts to and from daylight saving time and incidence of myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 2008;359(18):1966–1968. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc0807104. See also: Janszky, I., Ahnve, S., Ljung, R., Mukamal, K. J., Gautam, S., Wallentin, L., & Stenestrand, U. (2012). Daylight saving time shifts and incidence of acute myocardial infarction – Swedish Register of Information and Knowledge About Swedish Heart Intensive Care Admissions (RIKS-HIA). Sleep Medicine, 13(3), 237–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2011.07.019

A greater incidence of strokes: Sipilä, J. O., Ruuskanen, J. O., Rautava, P., & Kytö, V. (2016). Changes in ischemic stroke occurrence following daylight saving time transitions. Sleep medicine, 27-28, 20–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2016.10.009

And symptoms such as atrial fibrillation: Chudow, J. J., Dreyfus, I., Zaremski, L., Mazori, A. Y., Fisher, J. D., Di Biase, L., Romero, J., Ferrick, K. J., & Krumerman, A. (2020). Changes in atrial fibrillation admissions following daylight saving time transitions. Sleep medicine, 69, 155–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2020.01.018

A higher number of both emergency room visits and return visits to the hospital: Ferrazzi, E., Romualdi, C., Ocello, M., Frighetto, G., Turco, M., Vigolo, S., Fabris, F., Angeli, P., Vettore, G., Costa, R., & Montagnese, S. (2018). Changes in Accident & Emergency Visits and Return Visits in Relation to the Enforcement of Daylight Saving Time and Photoperiod. Journal of biological rhythms, 33(5), 555–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/0748730418791097

There occurs an increase in missed medical appointments:

Ellis, D. A., Luther, K., & Jenkins, R. (2018). Missed medical appointments during shifts to and from daylight saving time. Chronobiology international, 35(4), 584–588. https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2017.1417313

It alters gene expression in cardiac myocytes: Martino, T. A., Tata, N., Belsham, D. D., Chalmers, J., Straume, M., Lee, P., Pribiag, H., Khaper, N., Liu, P. P., Dawood, F., Backx, P. H., Ralph, M. R., & Sole, M. J. (2007). Disturbed diurnal rhythm alters gene expression and exacerbates cardiovascular disease with rescue by resynchronization. Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979), 49(5), 1104–1113. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.106.083568

Alters the epigenetic profile of core clock genes: Malow, B. A., Veatch, O. J., & Bagai, K. (2020). Are Daylight Saving Time Changes Bad for the Brain?. JAMA neurology, 77(1), 9–10. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaneurol.2019.3780

Increases inflammatory markers: Wright, K. P., Jr, Drake, A. L., Frey, D. J., Fleshner, M., Desouza, C. A., Gronfier, C., & Czeisler, C. A. (2015). Influence of sleep deprivation and circadian misalignment on cortisol, inflammatory markers, and cytokine balance. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 47, 24–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2015.01.004

Lowers vagal tone: Grimaldi, D., Carter, J. R., Van Cauter, E., & Leproult, R. (2016). Adverse Impact of Sleep Restriction and Circadian Misalignment on Autonomic Function in Healthy Young Adults. Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979), 68(1), 243–250. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.115.06847

Daylight Saving Time increases already-existing mood disturbances, and causes a rise in suicide: mood disturbances and suicide: Berk, M., Dodd, S., Hallam, K., Berk, L., Gleeson, J., & Henry, M. (2008). Small shifts in diurnal rhythms are associated with an increase in suicide: The effect of daylight saving. Sleep and Biological Rhythms, 6(1), 22–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1479-8425.2007.00331.x

In 2020, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) wrote a position paper: Rishi, M. A., Ahmed, O., Barrantes Perez, J. H., Berneking, M., Dombrowsky, J., Flynn-Evans, E. E., Santiago, V., Sullivan, S. S., Upender, R., Yuen, K., Abbasi-Feinberg, F., Aurora, R. N., Carden, K. A., Kirsch, D. B., Kristo, D. A., Malhotra, R. K., Martin, J. L., Olson, E. J., Ramar, K., Rosen, C. L., … Gurubhagavatula, I. (2020). Daylight saving time: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement. Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 16(10), 1781–1784. https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.8780

Dopamine levels in plasma follow: Korshunov, K. S., Blakemore, L. J., & Trombley, P. Q. (2017). Dopamine: A Modulator of Circadian Rhythms in the Central Nervous System. Frontiers in cellular neuroscience, 11, 91. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2017.00091

Many people with ADHD report delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS): Snitselaar, M. A., Smits, M. G., van der Heijden, K. B., & Spijker, J. (2017). Sleep and Circadian Rhythmicity in Adult ADHD and the Effect of Stimulants. Journal of attention disorders, 21(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054713479663

They tend to have more evening alertness: Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/adhd-and-sleep