How to cope with daylight savings change
The end of daylight saving can be tough at the best of times, and Lifeline CEO John Brogden warns the switch this Sunday could be even harder. Here are some tips to help you manage.
National
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Clocks go back one hour at 3am Sunday morning for residents in NSW, Victoria, SA, Tasmania and the ACT, and mental health professionals are warning people not to underestimate the impact the shift may have this year.
Lifeline CEO John Brogden knows it as well as anyone.
“As somebody who has depression and suicidal ideation, I find the worst day of the year is this coming Sunday. And the best day is the beginning of daylight saving, without a doubt,” he said.
Calls to the national telephone counselling service ramped up from a daily average of 2500 to around 3000 during the bushfire season, and have recently spiked as high as 3200.
“Four weeks ago we were getting a handful of calls about the virus; now more than half of our calls are about the virus,” Mr Brogden said.
The service is expecting heavy call volumes as Australians grapple with this weekend’s time shift, as well as the usual onset of Seasonal Adjustive Disorder (SAD) that comes with our shorter days.
On Sunday the sun will rise an hour earlier – a temporary boon to the early risers among us – but it will set an hour earlier too, robbing many of us of a daylight hour after the normal working day.
“For some individuals (the time change) will feel like the least important thing in their life at the moment and they’ll adapt quite quickly, and for others it will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” said Tasha Broomhall, director of mental health consultancy Blooming Minds.
Even people who manage the change easily in other years could struggle this year because of the added pressures of being socially restricted, she warned.
“Your normal threshold is already being pushed and extended, and this is likely to push it that little further, and for some people that will be a push too far,” she said.
Those who already struggle with sleep may be the most severely impacted – and a report from the Sleep Health Foundation late last year suggested that is most of us.
The report Chronic Insomnia Disorder in Australia found nearly 15 per cent of their respondents had the condition, while nearly 60 per cent reported difficulty with sleep at least once a week.
Making incremental changes to bedtime of about 15 minutes a day can help some people (especially kids) adapt to the new time zone, Ms Broomhall suggested.
She also advised grabbing time in the sunshine during the day to make up for the hour we’ll be losing.
“We know as we’re getting into winter we’ll have less natural sunlight, so we have to be really proactive in managing that sunlight exposure and getting it at the right times of the day,” she said.
Even Melbourne, with its famously variable climate, offered “pockets of sunshine” during the day, and these should be grabbed whenever they’re available, Ms Broomhall said.
Mr Brogden offered similar advice.
“You need to rearrange your time and make sure you take advantage of the sun when it’s around,” he said.
For workplaces, Ms Broomhall said, this meant offering more flexibility.
“What we have to be really careful of in workplace settings is not to assume that everyone is going to deal with it the same, and to not give people a hard time if they are struggling,” she said.
As of Sunday, it will be exactly 11 weeks to the shortest day of the year, on June 21. From there, our daylight hours will start to lengthen once again.
Daylight saving is set to return on Sunday October 4. For those counting, that’s a mere 26 weeks to cross off your calendar.
Originally published as How to cope with daylight savings change