Moving the clock forward doesn’t only affect your schedule but can also throw off your body’s natural rhythm. Even just a one hour disruption in sleep can negatively affect your mood, mental health and eating habits. 

Here are some holistic health tips to fall back on! 

1. When you wake up, take in all the light.  

Once Daylight Saving Time is in effect, one of the best ways to help your body adjust is to expose yourself to bright light each morning. This is thanks to photoreceptors in the retina that sense both light and dark and relay this information to the brain. This helps stop the secretion of melatonin, the sleep inducing substance. For the same reason, you’ll want to avoid bright light in the evening, from say computer screens, so that you’re able to sleep. Why does this happen? Sunlight actually acts on our eyes and our skin to increase our serotonin — the happy hormone. If we spend less time in the sun, we get less of that hormone that helps us feel good.

To counteract this change, we recommend sun lamps. They’ve been shown to improve mood, likely because these lights can increase the levels of serotonin in our bodies without giving off any UV radiation. You get all the benefits of the sun without the fear of its damaging effects on our skin.

Vitamin D levels do vary by seasons, and levels do drop in the winter. If you’re worried about this, there are over-the-counter vitamin D supplements you can take to boost your levels. In addition, we recommend eating more foods high in Vitamin D such as salmon, shrimp, and wild mushrooms to help boost your levels naturally.

2. Take a break from electric light.

Artificial light—from an LED light bulb, computer screen, smartphone, or TV—is largely blue-shifted. So when we are surrounded by artificial light in the evening, be it in our work environment or watching late-night TV or Internet surfing, our internal clock is being told that it’s midday.

This disruption in the natural light cycle can lead not only to insomnia, itself an increasingly common disorder, but also to the hormonal and metabolic disregulation that promotes obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, says Lisa B. Nelson, MD, Director of Medical Education at Kripalu.

To help alleviate bedtime blues try using essential oils, reading and meditation. 

3. Make sure you are feeding your body with good food. 

If you experience low energy, drowsiness, or fatigue, it may be because you’re eating differently in the transition to winter. 

Researchers believe that intermittent fasting can help your body reset its circadian rhythm faster, so you are better able to adjust to the new sunrise time.

Grounding supplements and herbs like ashwaganda, and licorice root are great to balance your microbiome. Some of our favorite brands include Sunpotion and Moon-juice, we like making a warm tea  with these herbal blends perfect before bedtime. Make sure to avoid any caffeine 6 hours before bedtime.

4. Keep an exercise routine and allow your body to move through the process. 

Yoga and other mediative practices are great ways to improve your breathing and circulation. The calming affects on the body also help induce better sleep! 

New to meditation? Try using meditation apps. Even just 5 min a day can help with adjusting your sleep. 

5. Give yourself time to recover.

Adjusting to a new time difference can take up to a week for the body to recover from. Take this week to slow down and let go of habits that aren't working so you can create new space. 

Comment below if you have any other helpful tips!