For good sleep, you’ve got to roll with the changes

Sleep experts say it takes about one day to recover from each hour of time change.

For me, a good night’s sleep is vital. If I miss my regular seven to eight hours of sleep a night, I get cranky and am more likely to get sick.

So I was among those to welcome the recent end of Daylight Savings Time, when clocks were set back an hour. The return of Eastern Standard Time meant the luxury of an extra hour of sleep.

Except when I travel across time zones, I’m among the lucky ones and have no difficulty sleeping seven hours a night. It’s also easy for me to roll over and snooze for another hour when my schedule allows.

As I grow older, I realize the ability to sleep straight through the night is not universal. Some are plagued by insomnia throughout their entire lives, while others acquire it as they age.

Sleep experts say 75 percent of us have sleep problems at some time during our lives.

I’m married to a guy who almost never sleeps through the night. He goes to bed about 11 p.m. and is often up again, roaming around the house, by 2:30 a.m. Sometimes he comes back to bed for a few hours, but more often than not I’ll find him sleeping on the sofa when I get up at 6 a.m.

He usually brags about all the things he got done while I slept away the night. He pays the bills, folds clothes and in summer even goes out into the yard with a flashlight to nab slugs and other bugs that wait until dark to attack our hostas and other landscape plants. Sometimes he’s even been known to rearrange furniture in the middle of the night — much to my dismay when I awaken.

His strange (to me) sleep habits don’t make him cranky or prone to colds and other ailments unless his sleeplessness lasts several days. It seems to be triggered, however, by time changes, especially in the spring when clocks are advanced one-hour for Daylight Savings Time.

Saving energy was the reason Daylight Savings Time was adopted in 1918. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, daylight saving time accounts for about 1 percent a day in electricity savings.

Right now it gets light about 7 a.m., and sunset is at 5:15 p.m. On the Dec. 21 winter solstice — longest night of the year — sunset will be at 5:22 p.m.

Earlier this month, I traveled to Spain, where the time is six hours later than in Cleveland. I had no trouble sleeping about three or four hours on my seven-hour overnight flight from New York to Madrid.

It takes less time to fly east to Europe because aircraft take advantage of the highaltitude eastbound jet stream. But returning from Madrid to New York is usually a nine-hour flight, and because it’s a daylight journey, I don’t sleep quite as well on board.

Sleep experts say it takes about one day to recover from each hour of time change. I recently traveled across six time zones and returned less than a week after I left home, but it would take someone lots better in math than I am to figure how long I walked around in a state of jet lag.

But when traveling either way, I try to schedule a long sleep on either end of the trip.

Because the internal clock keeps on ticking regardless of time zones, changes in sleep patterns always are hard on the body.

To keep my natural sleep patterns intact and recover them when I travel, I try to observe a couple of elements of what experts call good sleep hygiene.

Here’s what I do:

Adjust sleep and wake times in small, 15-to30-minute increments before travel or a time change.

Arrive at a destination early enough for a short nap.

Take a walk in the sunshine. Morning light helps when traveling east, and evening light is best when traveling west.

Try essential oils with a few drops on a cotton ball tucked into your pillowcase. These oils work best for me: lavender, jasmine, chamomile, bergamot, rose, clary sage, neroli, sandalwood, ylang ylang and vanilla.

Avoid electronics, including TV and email, before bed.

Make sleep a priority before a time change or travel across time zones.

A light snack before bed can help. I like fruit, nuts and yogurt.

A short afternoon nap can do wonders. Lie down for 10 to 20 minutes at about 2 or 3 p.m. Don’t sleep longer or you’ll be groggy.