Two weeks before the clocks change - my simple hacks to reset your body clock
The science-backed steps most people ignore, but I tell my clients to follow
Every year, when the clocks spring forward, we all go through the same ritual. Society changes the time overnight and then acts as though the human body should just shrug and get on with it. Some people more or less do, but a lot of people really do not.
The older I get and the more I work on myself, mostly to keep my nervous system in check, the more these clock changes drive me crazy! And it’s not just me, the more patients I see struggling with sleep, mood, palpitations, blood pressure, anxiety, and general physiological fragility, the less patience I have for the line that it’s “only an hour.” It’s not really about the hour, it’s about suddenly asking the body to do everything earlier than it’s ready to do.
Sleep earlier, wake earlier, regulate blood pressure earlier. Basically… cope earlier. Be emotionally stable earlier. Sorry, but it’s hard enough just to have a normally functioning autonomic nervous system, and now you want me to have it earlier?
News flash - the clock might change instantly, but the body? Not so much. That is why, from a circadian point of view, daylight saving time in spring behaves a lot like a small dose of jet lag. The social clock jumps forward, but the brain and body are still running on the old time. Even the CDC and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine both describe the spring transition as a significant disruption to sleep and circadian rhythms, not just a harmless little inconvenience.
In my clinical experience, the patients who suffer most are those with heart issues, mood disorders, pre-existing sleep problems, or anyone already running close to the edge. They feel it most sharply, the poor souls who, when they say they’ve been affected, get met with an eye roll, when in reality, they genuinely feel the pinch and that extra “off” feeling.
So what do I recommend?
Honestly, I think the biggest mistake is leaving it until the night before.
My basic rule: use two weeks, not one day
Week one is the stabilising week.
This is the week where the goal is not to shift anything dramatically yet. The goal is to get your sleep as solid and regular as possible.
This means:
go to bed at the same time,
wake up at the same time,
keep the schedule tight if at all possible,
avoid the usual drift later and later into the week,
and avoid “social jet lag” at the weekend.
That first week is really about building a stable base. If someone is already going to bed at wildly different times, sleeping in, drinking a lot, having late meals, and running on fragmented sleep, then trying to adapt to the clock change is much harder.
I often tell clients, that this first week is the time to clean things up: regular bedtime, regular wake time, less late-night stimulation, less alcohol, less chaos. And yes, I.m sorry to say, but alcohol matters here. People often underestimate how much it degrades sleep quality, yes, it can help with sleep onset, but it tends to fragment sleep later in the night and leaves many people less recovered than they think. So if you are trying to make the spring transition easier, this is a very good week to just STOP drinking or drink way less!
Week two is the shifting week.
Once the schedule is steady, then start moving it earlier in small increments. That is the week where you train the body toward the new time zone rather than ambushing it.
What I tell clients to do in that second week
7-5 days before
Move your wake-up time about 15 minutes earlier. Then get outside into daylight after waking, even if only briefly. As I am sure you know, morning light is one of the strongest circadian signals we have and we need it more than ever this week, as it’s the thing that tells the body, very clearly, “we live earlier now.” I also suggest eating breakfast a little earlier. Quite simply, you want to move wake time, meals, exercise, and light exposure earlier before the spring transition.
4 to 3 days before
Move bedtime and wake time another 15 to 20 minutes earlier. If you exercise, do it a bit earlier in the day if you can. Keep dinner slightly earlier too. Again, the point is not perfection, but to keep giving the body repeated cues that the day is starting and ending earlier. Light, meals, and exercise are all part of that circadian message.
2 days before
Protect the evening. Once the sun sets be under eery dim light and avoid electronic screens in the hour before bed when trying to shift earlier.
1 day before
Do not try to squeeze in one last late night. This is not the moment for “just this once.” Keep the evening boring and regular. Some people find it helps mentally to set the clocks forward in the early evening.
Morning after
Really try and watch sunrise! Or at the very least get bright outdoor light, DO NOT SLEEP IN!
The practical version, in plain English
If I had to boil this down, I would say:
First week: get your sleep clean.
Tight schedule, bed at the same time, wake at the same time, less going out, less alcohol, less nonsense at night.
Second week: start creeping earlier.
Wake a bit earlier, bed a bit earlier, breakfast earlier and dinner earlier + loads of daylight to keep your brain synced with the time of day.
That is the basic recipe.
It is not fancy, it is not complicated; is just good circadian hygiene.
The surprising metric that tells me who will handle the Spring clock change (and how to use it)
Why I sometimes use HRV as a reality check
HRV, or heart rate variability, is a measure of the tiny changes in time between one heartbeat and the next. It is not about how fast your heart is beating, but how adaptable it is. A healthy system is not metronomic, it must have flexibility. In broad terms, higher HRV suggests the body is recovering, adapting, and regulating well, whereas persistently low HRV can be a sign that the system is under strain.
The reason I suggest testing it a few week before your one- or two-week prep period, is because it gives you a baseline and then you can compare. I often have patients track heart rate variability (HRV), and it’s one of my favorite ways to get an early read on how their nervous system is actually coping.
In short, HRV is a subtle but powerful way to see how well your body is handling the stress of time shifts and it’s one of the tools I use clinically that most people never hear about.
I like using HRV to:
Compare baseline vs. prep week: See how your body responds to one or two weeks of regular sleep and lifestyle tweaks before the clock change.
Check the impact of the time shift: Did the spring-forward really throw your system off?
Track improvement: If your HRV goes up after proper prep, you know your strategy is working, it’s tangible proof that your nervous system is adapting.
Used like that, HRV becomes a very practical way of seeing whether you have helped train your body into the new time zone and whether you have softened some of that “mini jet lag” effect
The best way to test it is to use a Polar 10 chest strap heart rate monitor, rather than a wrist wearable, because chest straps generally give a cleaner beat-to-beat signal. Pair it with a phone app - Elite HRV is one option, but any decent free HRV app is fine, and then do the reading as soon as you wake up.
Why then? Because that is your cleanest baseline, before your cortisol awakening response really gets going, and definitely before coffee, emails, conversation, or moving around too much. Once the day starts, your nervous system is already being pushed around by light, posture, caffeine, stress, and all the little demands that come with being awake. HRV is most useful when you measure it under consistent conditions, and first thing on waking is usually the easiest way to standardise that.
What I tell my clients, in the end
Prepare early.
Spend one week getting sleep really regular.
Spend the next week shifting earlier in small increments.
Use morning light aggressively.
Reduce alcohol.
Protect the evenings.
Do not leave it until the night before.
For some patients, especially the ones with heart issues and mood disorders, that preparation can make a very real difference.
I wish there were more conversation about this, and if I’m honest, I rather wish daylight saving time would just be abolished altogether.
In the meantime, I hope some of these suggestions help you arrive at the clock change in a slightly better place.