Clocks swing back an hour this Sunday. A plan to counter daylight saving time's aftereffects can help.

Exercising later in the day can sometimes help with the
post-DST slumps. (Illustration by Dana Davis, Wirecutter)

This Sunday includes a glorious hour of extra sleep as daylight saving time winds to an end on Nov. 5 at 2 a.m. However, that single hour comes with a cost. When the sun sets by 4 p.m. in some places, many of us start feeling droopy and consider using toothpicks to prop our eyelids open. "Falling back feels unnatural because we're returning from an unnatural state," reports Caira Blackwell of Wirecutter. "You may be gaining an hour of sleep, but it's only because you moved the clocks forward artificially in the first place. Without DST, you would experience a gradual shift of lost daylight as autumn progresses into winter, the sun setting a little later each day."

While DST has been blamed for "increases in car accidents, heart attacks, and even overall mortality," Blackwell writes, "Unless laws change and golf club manufacturers, gas companies, and the leisure industry stop lobbying in support of DST, people will continue to face these jarring transitions twice a year. . . .Thankfully, studies have shown that the human circadian rhythm, a 24-hour cycle that's governed by your body's internal clock, adjusts more easily to the fall transition than the one in the spring." Here are five tips to help ease the shift.

Stay up later. "According to Chris Winter, MD, author of The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It, the transition in the fall is like 'a trip west to Vegas, rather than the more painful return to the east,'" Blackwell explains. "If you don't want to fall asleep an hour earlier post-DST, staying up a bit later a day or two before the time shift can help. If that's difficult, he recommends exercise later in the day to help rejuvenate you; studies show that working out between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. delays the body clock."

Take advantage of the sun. Joseph Takahashi, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said "that the best fall-back advice he can give for the chronically sleepy is to get as much light exposure as possible to help push through the darkness," Blackwell adds. 

Stick to regular meal times and other routines. "As the days get darker faster, you might feel hungrier earlier," Blackwell writes. "It's important to fight the urge to eat your last meal of the day super early, which may make you get sleepy sooner than you'd like or cause you to snack later, which can inhibit sleep."

Block early morning sunlight. "If the earlier sunrise post-DST causes you to wake up before you want to, now might be a good time to invest in blackout curtains or shades," Blackwell reports. "Consider smart shades, which can raise or lower on a schedule. Even a sleep mask can help."

If all else fails, embrace hibernation. "Fighting sleepiness, exercising on a consistent schedule, eating at the same time every night, and getting the right amount of sun is a lot to fit into a day that feels done before it begins," Blackwell adds. "Whether you like it or not, winter is coming. If all else fails. . . give yourself permission to take back some of what you've missed over the past year — and to fall back to yourself."