Winter time and mini jet lag: Five tips for the time change

On Sunday, the summer time ends, then the clocks are reset at night one hour from three to two clock. If you like to sleep long or want to celebrate Saturday evening extensively, you can look forward to the hour.

However, many people struggle with a mini jet lag after the changeover. In addition, the reset of the clock shifts the time of dawn and sunset in our everyday life, which makes our internal clock a little out of tune. The consequences: Because it gets dark earlier, our body emits the sleep hormone melatonin earlier, which makes you tired sooner. But it is in the morning but also earlier light - and morning people may even earlier awake.

These five tips can help people who wake up early in the morning, get tired early in the morning, or generally have difficulty getting in and out of sleep:

1. Go to bed later

The changeover to winter time is particularly strong for people who wake up in the morning anyway very early. The time change moves this time even further into the morning hours. If you want to counteract this, you can prepare yourself for the change by moving bedtime a quarter of an hour back on Saturday. Then the body can get used to the new rhythm better and hopefully gets its sleep back in the morning.

2. Never fall asleep on the sofa

Many know that: in front of the television, the eyes just did not want to stay open, but a few minutes later in bed, sleep is out of the question. This fate is particularly threatening in the dark evenings after the time change. Who can, should prevent it with all his strength and move to bed in time.

The reason: The sleep pressure, so our feeling of fatigue, builds up over the afternoon and evening and reached - if you do not go to bed - between two and three clock in the night the climax. However, if we fall asleep before, the sleep pressure drops very quickly and rapidly. So much so that the body is in doubt after a small nap in front of the TV is no longer poled on sleep.

3. Get out into the daylight

To be fit at noon and not hang out immediately in the dark in the evening, the body needs daylight - for example in the form of a walk during the lunch break. Radiation is the main clock of our internal clock, suppressing the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. We should not be afraid of clouds, even on cloudy days it is much brighter outside than in the house. Dark sunglasses, on the other hand, are counterproductive, and the receptors for melatonin stimulation are located in the retina.

4. Adhere to a strict sleep schedule

The most important thing for good sleep, according to experts, is the regularity. Especially during sleep and drowsiness it helps the body to go to bed at the same time and get up - even on weekends and even after a bad night. This increases the chances that the next one will get better.

The time change destroys these efforts for a short time. Therefore, it is all the more important to get back to routine - if the working hours make that possible.

5. Forgo the nap

Anyone who has problems falling asleep in the evening or wakes up too early in the morning should, if possible, cancel the nap during the day. This is especially true on the Sunday after the time change. As a result, the body is tired in the evening, the quality of sleep increases.

Sleep doctors prefer the winter time

Despite everything: The winter time fits better according to sleep doctors to our internal clock than the summer time. Accordingly, the brightness is more important in the morning than in the evening. The inner clock of night owls - ie people who go to bed late and sleep longer in the morning - according to a study with 55,000 people even permanently in the winter time. For those affected, a little normality returns on Sunday.