Why You Should Call In Sick After Daylight Saving Ends This Weekend

Even though daylight saving time ending gives you an “extra” hour of sleep this weekend, your circadian rhythms are still gonna be all kinds of screwy come Monday.

According to Dr. Alon Y. Avidan, the director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center, the extra hour of sleep we get Sunday at 2 a.m. actually messes with our fragile sleep cycle, he tells the Los Angeles Times. That means you might feel tired and sluggish for several days after the fact.

There are other negative impacts to daylight saving time, although many of them happen when we “lose” an hour come spring. Still, any sleep disruption can lead to health issues — an Australian study found a slight rise in male suicides the in the weeks after a time shift, with researchers blaming the destabilizing effect of sleep disruption on people with mental health issues, according to the Washington Post. And some doctors say changes in circadian rhythms can lead to weeks of cluster headaches.

There are some things we can do to combat the effects of daylight savings. Instead of sleeping in an extra hour, go to bed an hour later and wake up at the same time so that you’re more used to it the next day, Avidan recommends. Get some extra sun and go for a job the days before and after to make sure your sleep cycles are nice and healthy.

Your go-to home remedy of a gallon of cold brew coffee in the morning and a bottle of red wine at night? Not recommended, as excess caffeine and alcohol can be severely disruptive to your ability to fall and stay asleep.

Fire officials also use the semi-annual daylight savings ritual to remind people to replace the batteries in their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as well as emergency flashlights. We also recommend taking a few minutes to figure out how to change your car and microwave clocks because it annoys everyone who sees them when you don’t.