Mental Health and the Christian: Those Pesky Time Changes

If you are like me, you don't look forward to (dread?) those time changes twice each year. It's as if your work requires you to fly one time zone east or one time zone west. And if you end up flying in the same direction as the time change, you will find yourself negotiating two hours of time difference at your destination rather than just one. Ugh!

Research has found (as if we needed any confirmation!) that time changes are bad for mental health. According to the New Connections Counseling Center, "...studies indicate that depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts seem to rise around time change. Although Daylight Saving Time doesn't cause mental health problems, it can worsen them. As we get less sunlight, our seratonin and melatonin levels drop, which can lead to feelings of apathy and depression."

There are ongoing discussions in high places of doing away with biannual time changes. Proponents point to mental health disruptions as one of the downsides of time changes. The pendulum seems to be slowly swinging to year-round Daylight Savings Time (DST). But it's not entirely clear that this is a good thing. Mornings will be very dark times, which could exacerbate depression and make getting out of bed more challenging than it already is. (Not to mention those poor school kids waiting for their school buses out in those pitch-black cold winter mornings.)

While we wait for the politicians to make up their minds, there are several things you can try for what I call "DST mitigation." First of all, just after dinner on Saturday night, go around and set all the clocks to the new time. It's good to start thinking as if in the new time. Then "split the difference," literally. Start your bedtime regimen half an hour from the old time, in the direction of the time change. Then set your alarm to get you up at the new time, and force yourself to get up! From then on, live as if you are on the new time, with all your meals (and medications) on the new time. That gets you through Sunday. Then do your best to go to sleep at the new bedtime, getting up bright (or not so bright) and early Monday morning on the new time. Then don't look back. I've always heard it said that it takes a day per hour of time change to adjust your body clock when going abroad. But I always found that the last pesky hour (day) was the most difficult to achieve. In those cases, a good dose of boring reading at bedtime seems to be of help.

One last thing, if you are a Christian. God promises His help. In Psalm 4, verse 8, David says, "In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety." And Solomon agrees--"It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep." (Psalm 127, verse 2) So lie down and take Him at His word.

Blessings,

The Christian Bipole