The first daylight saving time (DST) in confinement: what you should know

Surely, the spring time change is the last thing on our minds right now. For the first time in history, this change of time is going to slip through the back door, with hardly any noise, with millions of schoolchildren, university students and quarantined workers confined in a limited space for an undetermined amount of time.

The good news is that, thanks to quarantine, this years’ time change will affect us less than before. To understand the reasons, it must first be explained how confinement affects our internal ticking.

The danger of having chaotic schedules

After the first few days of quarantine, the anxiety of contagion and job cuts had already settled in. Also the deprivation of social contacts, the lack of physical activity and the relaxation of certain labour and social obligations, which acted as synchronisers and helped put our biological clock on time every day.

On the other hand, it is easy for that internal clock to become disorganised during confinement and we end up being swept away by chaos in our schedules.

There are synchronisers (signals) of many types. The most important is the alternation of light (natural or artificial) and darkness, which usually coincides with day and night. Sleep and meal schedules, social contact or physical activity are also important. However, in order for a synchroniser to be effective in 'keeping time', it is necessary that every day it be repeated at practically the same time.

This is where the problems begin, because regularity is not easy in confinement. During this difficult period most of us do not have strict working hours (telecommuting), so we have become flexible with our timings in which we eat and sleep. To top it all off, being locked up at home we snack continuously, we spend a lot of time sitting down and we likely to lack natural light.

That is why we need to put special emphasis on boosting our synchronizers and finding ways to be regular for as long as the isolation lasts. This starts by choosing a sleep and work schedule that is more suited to our trends or timing than the schedule imposed by the pre-quarantine obligations. Most importantly, follow your schedule.

The time change will affect us less

Humans are governed by three times: internal time, of which we have already spoken (chronotype), external social time (working hours and official hour) and external solar time. The ideal situation would be for all three to coincide, but this is not usually the case. In fact, the change of time in spring does increase by one hour, the discrepancy between social and solar time. This has a negative impact both on the proper functioning of our internal clocks and on the temporal adjustment of our physiological processes. First of all, because we usually lose sleeping time, especially in the first few days.

Where is this time change coming from? During the first World War, in order to save coal, Germany proposed to advance the clocks by one hour, so that there would be sunlight 'until later'. Soon after, other countries at war joined the initiative. In the following decades, practically the whole world implemented this time shift, oriented to energy saving.

Today, however, there seems to be a consensus that this saving is not so significant as to compensate for the health problems it may cause. In fact, everything points to that time difference in our schedules leading to a social jet lag that has been associated with acute and chronic problems in our health and well-being.

This is why the majority of chronobiology experts advocate the elimination of this time change and the maintenance of standard hours throughout the year. In this way the days would continue to lengthen as the summer comes naturally. After all, do not forget that the time change only changes the clock, and is not responsible for having longer days in summer. Nor will we have longer winter evenings, as we would maintain the current situation during that season.

Having said all this, we can predict that this year’s seasonal shift will affect us less than on other occasions. Precisely because we will be able to follow our internal time to a greater extent than that marked by external social schedules. In fact, there will be those who just change their routine despite the new official hour. The new situation will allow us to experience what would happen if the time change, as proposed from Europe, were to be eliminated.

How does our internal clock work during confinement?

Returning to our confinement, an effective way to 'charge the battery' of the biological clock is to boost contrast. If our home allows us, we can achieve it by temporarily separating (a specific moment) and spacing out (a place in the house) the leisure work, the day (light, activity, sounds) of the night (darkness, rest, silence), or the working days compared to our days-off (with different types of activity in each case).

It is not advisable to work from bed, or not to differentiate between working time and leisure time. Of course, it is essential to get dressed and groomed before we start working.

During the day, we should try to incorporate a "ration" of physical exercise and a good dose of natural light (or, if not possible, at least artificial bright light). When the night comes, however, the light should be dim and warm, physical activity should be reduced, and try to keep your mind calm, away from work and worries.

The road to sleep has no shortcuts. It requires time and routines, as well as an atmosphere of silence and darkness. And of course, it is not advisable to read news on our mobile devices before bedtime. Even less under these circumstances. Following these tips will make it easier to maintain the health of your biological clock and, in addition, you will notice an improvement in your mood and general well-being.

On the other hand, in quarantine we no longer have excuses for not eating before three o'clock in the afternoon. We also have no excuse for not sleeping for seven to nine hours every night. But that does not mean that you stop winding the clock in the proper way.

May we soon get our lives and our social synchronizers back on track. Meanwhile, our solidarity, thanks and admiration for all the workers who allow us to live in quarantine. The rest of us, stay at home nurturing our home routines clock. It’s the best help we can provide. And next year, I’m sure we’ll be grumbling again about the 'nuisance' of having to adjust to the spring shift.