Just a reminder, Daylight Savings Time is a week away in USA & Canada on March 8, 2009. 65% of the readers from SpeedEndurance.com are from the United States and Canada.
The one hour time difference, either from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time, or traveling though several time zones makes a difference on your sleep patterns. At least temporarily.
Being above the 49th parallel, I’m certainly looking forward to longer days, as I’m tired of finishing track practices in total darkness.
Daylight Savings Time will create an adjustment period, similar to long distance travel (cross country or overseas), as it could take up to one day per time zone traveled. My advice is to try to fight it right away, even if it means a few groggy mornings. It’s really mind over matter.
In the past, from 1986 until 2005, Daylight Savings Time for Canada and United States started the first Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday of October. On August 8, 2005 President Bush signed into law a broad energy bill that will extend Daylight Saving Time by four weeks starting in 2007.
Now, Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts 3 weeks earlier in March instead of April and will end the first Sunday in November on November 1, 2009 (extended by one week). The 4 extra weeks is supposed to bring massive savings in energy bills. Ha!
Exceptions to the Rule
In Canada, the majority of Saskatchewan and parts of northeastern British Columbia do not observe DST but instead stay on “standard time” all year long.
In the USA, Arizona (with the exception of the Navajo Nation), Hawaii, the territories of Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, and American Samoa are the only places in the USA that do not observe DST.
Effects of Sleep
I already wrote about the Humans’ Natural Circadian Rhythm Disrupted By Daylight Savings Time last year.
If you feel 8 hours of sleep makes you a zombie, be sure to read The Best Method to Sleep using your REM cycle and understand why 6, 7.5 or 9 hours of sleep is better.
Or, in my case, how I survive on 6 hours of sleep or sometimes 4.5 hours a night!
Jimson Lee
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