Time change: How extra rest impacts your health

Welcome back. The clocks officially fell back overnight, returning us to standard time, giving us brighter mornings and an extra hour of sleep. While an extra 60 minutes in bed, of course, is a welcome bonus. Experts say that long-term heart health depends on what you do every night, not just once a year. For more insight, let's welcome in Dr. Sirojhar Shriparthy, the Sleep Lab Director at Kaiser Permanente in San Jose. Good morning. Thank you. How did you sleep last night? I had a wonderful sleep. I had my eight hours of sleep last night, and I feel well rested and refreshed. There you go. Well, what is it about one hour? I know the fall's easier because you gain an hour. This spring, we lose an hour. But does it really mess up our rhythm? So, you know, just the clock, you're just switching the clock one hour back backwards, but your internal clock is still not in sync with that. So it takes a few days for people to adjust, and it is a real adjustment. Thank you very much. The days are, you get bright light in the morning, but then in the evening it gets darker quickly. I must admit, it gets a little depressing driving home at 4:35 and it's already dark out, right? It's already dark. But I can tell you, when the sun is out there, get out there. Get the bright sunlight. It really helps. Yeah, what is it about sunshine? I know people that live in Alaska in the wintertime. There's a lot of depression because of that darkness. Bright light is the best cue you can get for your internal clock. So when you get bright light in the morning, it really helps you stay awake and get you going. And in the evening, when it gets darker, you're supposed to wind down and sleep, right? And that's how, you know, your body is. Like rhythm and telling you go to bed, what happens to our heart and our blood pressure when we sleep When we sleep our heart rate slows down. It's sleep as a state of relaxation, right? We rest and recover and we heal So when you sleep well your heart rate slows down your blood pressure goes down and you feel Rejuvenated in the next morning when you wake up. Is it more important to get Quality hours of sleep, five straight hours where you hit that rhythm, or is it more important to just be in bed for eight or nine hours? You know, definitely. The quality is as important as the quantity, right? Like an average adult needs about seven hours of sleep, but if you don't get a good quality of sleep, it doesn't matter. You can lay in bed for 10 hours and say, I slept 10 hours. I've done that before, especially with this job. How do you compensate for it? What should people do? Today, to just, you know, kind of reset the rhythm a little bit. So, even if you didn't prepare, like few days, you know, it's before the transition, right now, today, when the clocks change, and then after the transition. Even if you didn't prepare, it's okay. It's nice to have that, you could have planned like 15 minutes, 10 minutes, advancing your bedtime, like getting to bed late. But starting today, you can go to bed like 10, 15 minutes late. So you wake up 10, 15 minutes late and get that bright light in the morning. See, I kind of play that game. I look at the clock and it was 8.30, 9 o'clock, but it was really 7.30, you know. And I said, I'm just going to go to bed. And thanks to iPhones, they change automatically. So you set your alarm. You wake up maybe an hour earlier, but you don't fake out your brain, I guess. Yeah, you know, when you get hungry, how you wake up, your internal clock is still not Switched with your external clock so you will wake up a little bit early and then in the evening. It's dark You're groggy. You're not sleepy yet So there is still some adjustment even with the one hour extra weekend and then to be frank like we say it's one hour How much do we actually use in that one hour right most of us say we have an extra hour We use an about 30 minutes. What about pets? I know you're a human doctor, but I They kind of go through it too right? They go through it too and when you sleep don't have your pets right next to you. I mean it feels good to have them cuddle with them, but the body temperature of the pets is a bit higher so you want to keep them out of your bedroom. What if you get a full night's sleep? Say you're in bed eight hours, but you still wake up exhausted. What did we do wrong? See, that's important to know, right? You've gotten your eight hours. You don't feel refreshed. You don't feel good during the day. That's when you go to your doctor. And, you know, you need to get checked. There are other underlying sleep conditions, like sleep apnea, restless leg, where you're not getting the quality of sleep. There may be something else affecting you. And electronics, they're the worst, right? TVs, your phone, your iPad. I mean, in this day and age, it's so hard to avoid them. I mean, our work phones, home phones, iPads, TVs, noise. It's good to have a wind-down routine. Keep your electronics away an hour or two before bedtime. Exercise early in the day and get that light going. There you go. And finally, for Rosemary and I, who work nights, days, mornings, what advice do you have for us? I would say whenever your wake-up time is, Plan your bedtime accordingly. So it's always important to anchor your wake-up time. So, okay, I have to get up at 2 in the morning and get to work. So you're going to wake up, go to bed at 7 p.m. But that doesn't work. It is so hard to do that. Consistency is the key. If you can plan and be consistent. If you're a morning anchor, you do this. So if I go to bed at 7, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, okay, I get six hours sleep. But not always the case. Doctor, great insight. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.