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7 Tips for Surviving the Fall Daylight Saving Time Change
Daylight saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 1. Here’s how to ease into the transition and adjust to darker days
4-minute read
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Key takeaways
- The fall change from daylight saving to standard time can affect sleep, even though it’s generally less disruptive than the spring shift.
- Morning light exposure, regular routines and exercise can help your body adjust to the earlier sunset.
- Researchers say ending twice-yearly clock changes could benefit health, and permanent standard time shows the greatest gains.
Most Americans look forward to gaining the extra hour that comes with the end of daylight saving time (DST), which occurs on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 2 a.m. local time. That’s when we “fall back.”
Though it may not affect you as intensely as the spring time change, many scientists believe any interruption to our circadian rhythms — our body’s wake and sleep cycles — can have a negative effect on our health.
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The fall time change “isn’t associated with the same impact or level of disruption as the spring change, but it can still affect you,” says Michelle Drerup, a sleep specialist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
“In the fall, it’s actually easier for people to adjust to the time because our body’s circadian rhythm is in tune with the rising of the sun and sunset,” says Dr. Pedram Navab, a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist in California and author of The Alchemy of Sleep: The Science, Mystery & Magic of a Good Night’s Rest. In other words, standard time is more aligned with our natural clocks.
“Most people will not have an issue with falling back,” Navab says, though it can be harder for older adults and early risers.
That said, the shorter days and early onset of darkness can leave you feeling moody or lethargic. An older BMJ study shows an 11 percent increase in depression episodes in the week following the November change.
Even if you use the extra hour to catch up on sleep, studies show you’re still likely to experience a net loss of sleep in the days after the change. That’s because you’ll wake up earlier, have more trouble falling asleep or wake up more often during the night.
Here are seven ways to ease into the time shift and combat the potentially harmful effects of the end of DST.
1. Gradually adjust your bedtime and other routines
To make the switch less abrupt for your body, try to go to bed 15 to 20 minutes later each day for a few days leading up to the clock rollback, suggests Dr. Rachel Ziegler, a sleep medicine doctor at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Minnesota. “Your body doesn’t take that much time to adjust to an hour,” Navab says.
Dr. Shalini Paruthi, a sleep medicine specialist at the John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital in St. Louis, adds, “You should also begin to adjust the timing of other daily routines that are time cues for your body, like meals and exercise.”
2. Set your clock back on Saturday night
The people who tend to have the most difficulty with the fall time change are early birds — those who already go to bed early and wake up early, Drerup says. They often find themselves wide awake an hour earlier than normal.
To help ease the transition, Drerup recommends changing your clock on Saturday night and staying up a little later than your regular bedtime.
If it’s difficult to stay awake, try doing something active, such as taking an evening stroll rather than sitting on the couch and watching TV, Drerup suggests.
3. Get outside
Many Americans, particularly those who work indoors all day, don’t spend much time in daylight after the fall time change because of the earlier sunset. “They may be leaving work when it’s dark, going to work when it’s dark — so they’re getting no light exposure,” Drerup says.
Sunlight tells our circadian rhythms when we’re supposed to be tired and when we’re supposed to be awake, Ziegler says. “It’s more natural for the body, again, to optimize that sunlight exposure to get more in the daytime to boost the mood.”
Specifically, Navab says it’s most important to get light in the afternoon when the fall change occurs. “Sunlight helps reset your internal clock,” she says.
Light exposure has also been shown to improve the quality of your sleep and boost your mood. If you can’t go outside, get to a window or try a light therapy box. A box can be helpful throughout the fall and winter months, especially if you have seasonal affective disorder, Navab notes. If you have any retinal issues or bipolar disorder, ask your doctor if a light therapy box is recommended for you.
4. Maintain good sleep hygiene
Try to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day, and avoid any dozing before bedtime.
Keep your bedroom dark, quiet and cool. Limit your use of alcohol and electronic devices before bed, and adopt a calming bedtime routine.
“A good bedtime routine includes doing the exact same activities in the exact same order every night,” Paruthi advises. “Most successful bedtime routines are 15 to 30 minutes long. They help transition the brain from a go-go-go mindset to a calmer one so you can relax and get some sleep.”
5. Get moving
Make the most of the light in the morning, and use that extra hour for a morning workout, Ziegler suggests.
If you can’t exercise in the morning, it’s still a good idea to incorporate some activity into your day.
“Exercise has been shown in studies to improve sleep quality,” Paruthi says. “It’s recommended that we get at least 150 minutes of movement or exercise per week, which could be as simple as walking 30 minutes five days a week.”
If you feel an afternoon slump when it gets dark outside earlier than expected, avoid naps or too much caffeine, says Dr. Beth Ann Malow, a professor of sleep at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
“Instead, go for a brisk walk, as exercise wakes us up and also promotes sleep later that night,” Malow says.
6. Block out light
If sunrise wakes you up too early after the clock change, install some blackout curtains. Even easier: Don a sleep mask.
Your eyelids alone can’t block out all the light, research shows. In fact, a study published this year in the European Heart Journal links even low levels of light during sleep to markers for heart dysfunction.
7. Try not to stress
Don’t worry too much about the time change, Drerup says.
“Worrying about it actually just makes it worse for a lot of people,” she says. “You may feel a little off for a couple of days, but most people who don’t have chronic insomnia or a sleep disorder do pretty well.”
An end to time shifts?
There have been efforts to stop the nation’s shift between daylight saving time and standard time. The Sunshine Protection Act, which calls for permanent DST has stalled in the Senate, and most of the U.S. still moves the clocks forward and back each year. Some states and territories do not participate and therefore don’t change their clocks. A 2025 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences compared permanent standard time, permanent DST and shifting biannually. Shifting is the worst for our health, the researchers said. Sticking with either permanent time would be better — and a permanent standard time would benefit the most people, the study’s authors say.
A permanent standard time would prevent approximately 300,000 strokes per year and result in about 2.6 million fewer people having obesity, according to the study. Sticking with DST permanently would accomplish about two-thirds of that effect, according to the data.
The study evaluated only the impact of time policy on circadian-linked changes in health, but other aspects need to be assessed to get a broader idea of what’s best, says study coauthor Jamie M. Zeitzer, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and codirector of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University. Other factors to consider include the impacts on exercise, economics and safety.
A 2025 American Heart Association study showed that disruptions to your circadian clock affect blood sugar regulation, blood pressure and inflammation. The disruptions can also affect your cardiovascular health risk.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends sticking with standard time instead of daylight saving time. DST is not great for our health, even if some argue it may better for the economy because it extends the time people may be out, Navab says.
Under permanent daylight saving time, people may be out later and go to sleep later. That and not getting enough sleep are linked to higher rates of obesity and metabolic problems, Navab says. Lack of sleep also can drive hormone imbalances and shifts in circadian rhythms.
Older adults are more prone to insomnia, so permanent daylight saving time could be especially harmful for them. “They’re getting light toward the end, and they have a hard time sleeping anyway, and getting light at the end is shortening their ... sleep times,” Navab explains.
“It’s great that we’re trying to get to some sort of regular thing, but they’re [those pushing for permanent DST] on the opposite end of what the science is really telling us,” Navab says. “Our circadian rhythm is not meant for DST. It’s meant for standard time.”
The key takeaways were created with the assistance of generative AI. An AARP editor reviewed and refined the content for accuracy and clarity.
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