Time Change: Mindset Matters

Why did my wife’s alarm go off so early this weekend? Wait, it didn’t. It’s just Daylights Saving Time. Depending on perspective and mindset, this “Spring forward” can be experienced rather negatively and take a physical toll, or it can be exciting, energizing and life giving, more sun and warmer weather. How do you experience time change, especially in the Spring? Your perspective could make all the difference.

Statistically, about one-third of the world’s population participate in some form of daylight saving each year, and the data from this shift can be alarming – props to neuroscientist and sleep researcher and expert, Dr. Matthew Walker for bringing attention to these statistics. After the Springtime change when we lose an hour of sleep, that following week there is an increase in heart attacks, stroke, automobile accidents, more injuries at work, even suicide. In case you are wondering, when we gain an hour of sleep in the fall, those increases decrease; there are less heart attacks, accidents, and suicide. Sleep is so important for our health and wellbeing, so is our perspective on getting the sleep we need, at least in the short-term.

Ellen Langer, Harvard’s first tenured professor of psychology, has an incredibly interesting study on real and perceived short-term sleep loss and its impact on performance. Healthy subjects slept in a sleep lab overnight. They either had a clock that moved slowly and told them they only slept 5 hours when they slept 8 hours, or the clock moved quickly and indicated that they got 8 hours of sleep when they only slept for 5 hours. Then, they took a test of cognitive performance and were asked to subjectively rate their level of sleepiness. Can you guess what the researchers found? If you perceived that you got the sleep that you needed (8 hours), you perform better and you don’t feel sleepy. If you perceive that you didn’t get the sleep you needed (5 hours), you perform worse and you feel sleepy. This is remarkable! Even if you get the 8 hours of sleep your body needs, if you believe you got too little sleep you will feel and perform worse! As Stanford health psychologist Kelly McGonigal PhD teaches, “the effect you expect is the effect you get.”

Here’s the take-home: Sleep is essential for health and wellbeing. We absolutely need good – quantity and quality – sleep to be healthy, feel good, and perform at our best. And, at least in the short term, if we perceive that we are getting what we need, we can feel great and function at our best.

The solution to sleep in your lifestyle is not that you can just change your mindset and sleep as little as possible. The solution is to prioritize the sleep you need, and – emphasis on and – in the short-term, this week, give yourself a little more time to take care of yourself in all the little ways that make a significant difference in how you feel and function throughout the day. Pick out your outfit the night before, give yourself a few extra minutes in the morning to get ready for the day, have good food available and easily accessible, and go a bit easier on yourself as your circadian rhythms synch with the time change. Even if you’re a little short on sleep, you will be strong in mind, which will make you also strong in body.

In all reality, you might lose a bit of sleep this week, but if you take care of yourself and your needs and prepare with a little more intention for your upcoming days this week, you can shift your mindset from lack to plenty. And that mindset shift can lead to a better transition this Daylight Saving Time and to you feeling great and having a wonderful week.

Craig Keaton, PhD, LMSW

Burnett School of Medicine at TCU Director of Wellbeing