Yesterday was Daylight Savings Time, where everyone in the US turns back their clocks an hour and reverts to Standard Time. While recent bills passed by both the Senate and numerous states suggest it’s likely that our years of changing the clocks are numbered, the tradition is here to stay for at least a while longer. Meanwhile, changing the clocks has gotten me thinking about my sleep schedule, and what sleep habits are best for me as a creative person who makes his own work schedule.
Quick rewind: I spend kind of a lot of time talking about sleep on this blog. One of my most popular posts chronicles what happened when I went to work on two hours of sleep (Spoilers: It sucked), and more recently I’ve realized that spending the time it takes to get enough sleep is a great investment if it means I can use my remaining time productively.
More importantly, when I consider what kind of daily schedule I want to keep, first and foremost is the idea of when I’d like to be getting up and when I’d like to be going to bed. At times when I’ve worked a Day Job with set hours, my wake-up time has basically been decided for me, but at times when I’ve been able to make my own schedule, that time is set by me and me alone.
But here’s the thing: Even though the clocks are changing this month, my body’s circadian rhythm won’t change, meaning I’ll naturally want to get up an hour earlier after November 6th. This raises an important question: Should I keep following the sleep schedule my body’s gotten used to, or change it to suit the changing clocks?
An Easy Chance to Change Your Sleep Schedule
I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of how circadian rhythm works, but suffice it to say that under normal conditions, your body will naturally want to go to sleep and wake up at the same times every day (accounting for factors like light, physical fatigue, sleep debt, etc.). It’s why we get jet lag when we travel, why sleeping in on weekends can be tough, and why some people can wake up in time for work without an alarm clock.
Because I’ve been trying to maintain my circadian rhythm, I’ve naturally been waking up around 8:00am every day and going to bed just before midnight, and feeling like I get enough sleep every time. The only exceptions are nights when I stay out really late (for example, if I’m going to a concert, or when I travel), or the two mornings a month when I get up early to teach private English lessons to a student in Japan (more on this later). Both create slight hiccups in my sleep schedule, but after a day or so of going to bed early and/or sleeping in a bit, I’m generally able to get back into my 8:00am-midnight sleep routine.
Now let’s consider Daylight Savings Time. In October, I was waking up at 8:00am and going to bed at midnight, which was easy. As of November 6th, though, turning back the clocks means that 8:00am becomes 7:00am and midnight becomes 11:00pm.
Of course, while the changing of every clock also changes people’s work schedules, the body’s circadian rhythm doesn’t automatically change on November 6th—at least not without some coaxing. So after last Sunday, while my bedside table clock might say 7:00am (which on Ian’s Work Schedule means Time to Sleep Another Hour!), my body will still think it’s 8:00am (which for Ian’s Circadian Rhythm means Time to Get Up!).
This means I essentially have two choices:
- Train my body to adjust to the new 8:00am-midnight Standard Time schedule using local time, which will likely involve several mornings of lying in bed awake but not wanting to get up, or
- Just freakin’ get up at 7:00am
Right now, I’m planning on doing the second one.
Making Your Mornings More Productive
Right now, my Work-From Home Writer/Editor Work Schedule has me working on my Secret New Novel Draft four mornings a week, and this blog on the fifth morning. That means that every morning I’ve got 3-4 hours to devote to my creative work, which should be plenty of time, right?
Well, ideally yes, but there are some snafus. Some mornings I sleep in, or making breakfast takes longer than I’d like, or I get a slow start on writing because I need some extra motivation. Factors like these can set back my writing start time by anywhere from ten minutes to 2 hours, meaning that’s up to 2 hours less of writing I can do that morning.
Some afternoons I also have 1:00pm meetings with editing clients or other errands or tasks to take care of earlier in the afternoon. This means I take an earlier lunch, which cuts into my morning writing time. And, because I like to sort through my email before getting into my afternoon work, I have to allow time for this as well—which, you guessed it, translates to less writing time.
All of a sudden, that 3-4 hours of writing time can turn into 1-1.5 hours if I’m not careful. Without even noticing it, I’ve been cutting my writing time in half! (nooooooooooo!)
Also, remember those online English lessons with my student in Japan? Well, two mornings a month I’ve been setting an alarm for 6:40am (!) and getting up to teach those, which causes issues when I have trouble going to bed early the night before and feel less focused after getting up 80 minutes earlier than usual. This causes the hours before and after my early lessons to be less productive overall, which really isn’t good.
Getting up closer to 7:00am will thus solve a lot of problems: it’ll give me more morning time for the writing and revising I need to do while also making it easier for me to meet my student in Japan twice a month. Work-wise, it’s a win-win.
The only downsides to this new sleep schedule are on the non-work side, where on some nights I’ll meet friends or go to concerts that have me crashing after 11:00pm, midnight, or 1:00am. Under my old schedule, these nights were easier to manage, though I suspect they’ll be more difficult under the new plan. These fun nights, though, might just need to be something I’ll have to deal with: as in, they happen with a low enough frequency that it makes more sense to have them simply interrupt my sleep schedule, rather than catering my entire sleep schedule to make them easier.
Because, after all, I’m serious about accomplishing my writing and creative work goals, and sleep hiccups after an occasional night out seem like a small price to pay for that.
Final Thoughts: Moving Forward
I might talk a big game when I say I’m going to start keeping 7:00am to 11:00pm hours, though I expect my actual wakeup time might look more like 7:15 or 7:30am, at least at first. Even an extra half hour in the mornings, though, will be useful for me, since it’ll preserve my writing time and keep me on a better track for the day. After all, I don’t want to stick to an ultra-regemented schedule that doesn’t feel natural for me—I want to work in the way I work best, and figure out what way that really is.
Most people reading this will likely have their sleep schedules defined by a Day Job that sets their hours for them, but if you’re like me and have more flexibility, you might consider the merits of making a similar move for the Daylight Savings Time change, rather than fighting to sleep in and stay up an hour later. If you think extra morning time will be more useful for you than extra night time, go for it! After all, it’s the best time all year to give it a try :-)