How to Adjust Your Sleep to Daylight Saving Time (Spring and Fall)

The easiest way to adjust to daylight saving time is to start a few nights early. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) suggests shifting your bedtime 15 to 20 minutes earlier each night for a few nights before clocks spring forward, or 15 to 20 minutes later before they fall back ^[1]. Move your wake time and meals along with it, then use light to help your clock catch up. Most people settle into the fall change within a few days ^[8]. The spring change is harder and can take a week or more ^[5].

A four-night plan for spring forward

Say you usually sleep from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Starting on the Wednesday before the change, move both ends of your night 15 minutes earlier each day. By Saturday you are already living an hour ahead, so the clock change itself costs you almost nothing.

The AASM also suggests setting your clocks to the new time on Saturday evening and going to bed at your normal bedtime, then getting sunlight on Sunday morning and plenty of sleep on Sunday night ^[1]. For fall back, run the same plan in reverse, moving 15 minutes later each night. If you have been short on sleep, the AASM advises skipping the fall pre-shift and just enjoying the extra hour in bed ^[1]. Starting from a different bedtime? The sleep schedule calculator will lay out each night for you.

Why spring forward is harder than fall back

Your body clock is not set to exactly 24 hours. In carefully controlled lab conditions, its natural cycle averages about 24.2 hours ^[4], so left alone it drifts slightly later each day. Falling back an hour goes with that drift. Springing forward asks your clock to jump an hour earlier, which is like flying east.

There is a second problem. The spring change moves an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening ^[7], so your mornings get darker and your evenings lighter. Less morning light and more evening light both nudge bedtimes later ^[1], which is the opposite of what you need. In a study that tracked sleep and activity around the clock changes, people's daily rhythms readily adjusted to the fall change, but activity timing did not adjust to the spring one, especially in late chronotypes, the natural night owls ^[6].

How long it takes to adjust

For the fall change, most people need only a few days ^[8]. The spring change can stretch further: a review of the research found that it brings longer time to fall asleep and more broken sleep, adding up to a sleep loss that lasts at least across the following week ^[5]. In an AASM survey, 55% of US adults said they felt tired after the spring transition ^[1].

Teenagers and night shift workers tend to have the hardest time, because many are already short on sleep ^[1]. If you are still struggling after a couple of weeks, the advice in how to fix your sleep schedule works for any kind of drift, including one that outlasts the clock change.

Light and caffeine the week after

Light and darkness set your body clock, so use them on purpose ^[1]. After spring forward, get outside for daylight soon after waking and dim the lights in the evening ^[1]. Our guide to how long to get morning sunlight has the details. After fall back, keep light low until your target wake time, then head out for early sunlight in the days after the change ^[1][8].

Go easy on caffeine, too. The AASM advises against extra caffeine late in the day while your body adjusts ^[8], and an afternoon coffee to make up for a short Sunday night can make it harder to fall asleep at the new bedtime on Monday. Shift meals and exercise along with your sleep, and keep the same wake time every day, weekends included ^[1][8].

Do you really get an extra hour in the fall?

The fall change is often sold as a free hour of sleep. The research is less generous, according to a review of the evidence ^[5]. There is little evidence that people actually sleep an extra hour on the night of the change, and the following five workdays all begin an hour earlier by body time, which can add up to a net loss of sleep over the week ^[5]. If you want the hour, you have to take it: go to bed at your usual time and let yourself sleep, which is what the AASM suggests if you are already short on sleep ^[1].

Safety: the Monday after

The spring change has a measurable cost on the road. A study of 732,835 fatal US car crashes from 1996 to 2017 found that the risk rose by 6% in the days after spring forward, more so in the morning and in the western parts of each time zone ^[3]. The increase faded over the following week, and the fall change showed no such effect ^[3]. The AASM also links the spring change to a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes and to more emergency room visits ^[1].

In the first few days after the change, pay attention to how alert you feel. If you are drowsy, do not drive: get a ride, use transit or wait until you have caught up on sleep.

Why sleep doctors want permanent standard time

Many sleep specialists would rather not change the clocks at all. The AASM's updated position statement says the US should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of permanent standard time, which it calls the best fit with human circadian biology ^[2]. Its reasoning is that standard time keeps your body clock, sunrise and the clock on the wall more closely in sync, while daylight saving time shifts light later into the evening and leaves many people going to bed later and sleeping less ^[1][2].

Next clock changes

As of October 29, 2026: in most of the United States, daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when clocks fall back one hour ^[7]. It starts again on the second Sunday in March, which is Sunday, March 14, 2027 ^[7]. Hawaii and most of Arizona do not change their clocks ^[7]. In the European Union and the UK, clocks already went back on October 25, 2026, and will spring forward on Sunday, March 28, 2027. For the spring changes, start the four-night plan on the Wednesday before. For November 1 there is still time for a three-night version: from Thursday, move bedtime and wake time 20 minutes later each night.