Sleep · 60 s
Your body clock after the clocks go back
Did your body notice the clocks went back?
Your clock. It ignores your phone completely. It sets itself by light, and morning light counts most.
The data. In 2007, a Munich team looked at sleep data from 55,000 people. On free days, their sleep drifted with dawn through the seasons.
The twist. Tracking 50 people for eight weeks, body clocks caught up in autumn. In spring they mostly didn’t, especially in night owls.
How sure? The study is from Central Europe, and the eight-week part had only 50 people. The morning-light tip comes from Mayo Clinic.
Sources
- Daylight saving time and the circadian clock (2007), ScienceDaily
- Adjusting for the end of DST, Mayo Clinic
What the video says
Did your body actually notice that the clocks went back?
If this week has been rough, open the curtains the minute you wake up, or at least switch the lights on.
Your body runs its own clock, and that clock ignores your phone completely. It sets itself by light, and morning light counts most.
In 2007, a team in Munich looked at sleep data from 55,000 people. On free days, without alarms, their sleep drifted with dawn through the seasons.
Then they followed 50 people for eight weeks around each clock change. In autumn, body clocks caught up without much fuss. In spring they mostly didn't, especially in night owls.
One of the researchers compared it to shipping the whole population of Germany to Morocco every spring, and back again in autumn.
So you got the easy direction this time. Enjoy it, and, actually, go open those curtains.