Daylight Savings has done a number on my circadian rhythm. I usually can leap out of bed and start the day without much more than a short beep from the alarm. Sparky is an early riser and he lets me sleep in until about 6:30 or 7:00 AM. But with the falling back – where we turn the clock back an hour – the extra daylight only works for a few short weeks. After that we rise in darkness and eat dinner after sundown. I feel as if I live in the Arctic Circle with perpetual night.
Winter has always made me sluggish but the time change has intensified the effect. What is a girl to do? I can remember a time when I adjusted to this time change with the help of caffeine. My once a day Dr. Pepper helped me stay awake when my body said it was time to nap. Now that I’m decaffeinated, that isn’t an option. Actually taking a nap is a possibility but it only increases the sloth that creeps into my bones about 2:00 PM. I tried going to bed earlier. There was no reset of my body clock. The same with sleeping later or getting up earlier.
I resorted to vitamins. The B-12 vitamins seem to give me an energy boost and the extra iron and Vit D are also helping. I’ve been doing a little aroma therapy using cinnamon, grapefruit and rosemary essential oils. I’m not sure they are making a difference but they do smell good. I’ve been trying to play a “mind game” for about 30 minutes a day. I’ve always been mentally alert so that’s not the issue. It is this body that just doesn’t want to move!
All my reading indicates that exercise might be a good antidote. Due to the university’s exercise facilities being closed (and remaining that way for the foreseeable future) my exercise has fallen by the wayside. My current exercise options are either walking outdoors, joining Planet Fitness where Sparky exercises when he doesn’t play pickleball, taking up pickleball, or doing exercise in front of the TV (there is a yoga channel along with a couple exercise DVDs). None of those appeal to me. Walking is fine when the weather is decent but that hasn’t been the case. I do not like Planet Fitness – the idea of sweating with strangers who are haphazard with their masks makes me uncomfortable. Pickleball sounds fun but I know that my shoulders can’t handle it. I’d end up having rotator cuff repair for sure. As for the TV yoga and the exercise videos, well I’ve tried and after a few weeks I get bored. Maybe I’ll just have to breakdown and invest in a treadmill.
A Different Perspective 
this only came in my email. 🙂
On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 10:29 PM A Different Perspective wrote:
> murisopsis posted: “Daylight Savings has done a number on my circadian > rhythm. I usually can leap out of bed and start the day without much more > than a short beep from the alarm. Sparky is an early riser and he lets me > sleep in until about 6:30 or 7:00 AM. But with the falli” >
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So sorry Bonnie – I was quick to catch my mistake but obviously not quick enough for WP to send out the post! It is a future post and I’m sure you will be able to read it in the not too distant future…
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“. I usually can leap out of bed and start the day without much more than a short beep from the alarm. ” I am admiring you, Val , and more yet Sparky . I had an alarm clock that rang 7 times. , times carefully distant . Since I am retired I have as a physical exercise , the gardening and now , nothing , for almost disability!!! 🙂
We do what we can! 🙂
Love ❤
Michel
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I can get up but then mid-afternoon my energy drops and I just want to sleep… I suppose that the older I get the more of a challenge it will become to be motivated. So I’m working on staying busy. Indeed we do what we can!
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and you are right!
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🙂
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a few good sleeps and you’ll feel better … I’m not qualified to comment on winter sluggishness 🙂 As I dread the cold it’s unlikely I would ever emerge from the bedclothes …
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I wish a few good sleeps would do the trick – the time change happened in November and it is still affecting me. Went to the doctor and all is well physically… just need to figure out a routine to allow me to stay busy!!
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ah I had no idea it had been going on so long! I check what is bothering me, what’s left undone … get it done and deep sleep comes 🙂
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I think the resolution of the political cycle will bring me some relief.
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sure we all feel lighter and brighter for it!
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Hehe! Yes. Having a nice visit with my sister helped too…
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good for you!
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🙂
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I could go to bed at eight every night right now. I am an early riser when we are home.
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I would love to be able to sleep early but if I went to bed at 8 pm I’d wake up at 3 am and not be able to go back to sleep.
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It does not matter if I go to bed at 8 p.m. or 1 a.m. I will be up by 5 at the latest at home. So I go to bed early to get as much sleep possible.
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I’ve been there. Fortunately I get 6-7 hours and I’m usually awake… If all is quiet and dark I can get another hour but then I’m up… and then I crash 12 hours later.
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I get around 7 in the truck and I am awake reading waiting for the alarm to go off.
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When I was working I’d wake up a few minutes before the alarm and just relish those last few moments. Now I don’t usually set an alarm at all!
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At home I set alarms just in case I can sleep in when we have places to be. It never happens and I shut the alarm off when I get up. I usually read until seven or eight before staring my day here at home.
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Sounds like you have a really good internal clock!
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I seem to.
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🙂
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No caffeine?!? and yay, you.
I just heard an interview with Daniel Lieberman, scientist now author of Exercised. It’s motivated me, for sure. (I can tag you over on the FB article, if you want) 🙂
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Sure send me the link! I went caffeine free many years ago but it was related to cutting out soda since I was never a coffee or tea drinker….
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I have two dogs, so I take a long walk every day, in every kind of weather. I have more outdoor gear than everyday clothing (lined pants, coat, fleeces that can be layered, rain jacket, mittens, gloves, ear band, winter hat with earflaps, knit scarf, Sloggers (rain) boots, fur-lined winter boots, sunglasses, etc). Today it was 9 degrees with the wind chill. On days when it’s too icy to walk, we pile into my car and go to the beach where they can run (leashless) while I get my walking in. I’m not a gym fan; it’s too expensive for the little I use it. I like yoga, but videos at home don’t cut it, too many interruptions from hubby and pets, and I don’t own anything but a mat (no blocks, blankets, straps, etc). When COVID is over, I might join the yoga studio here in town. 🙂
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The university used to have a yoga class that was free and held during lunch but COVID put an end to that. The yoga classes in town require a “membership” fee and then a course/per class fee on top of that making it more expensive than it is worth… at least to me. I have lots of cold weather gear too – for geocaching in the winter. The hard part is getting suited up to venture out and then realizing you have to go pee!
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Oh Val, getting up in winters is not easy for me too! But since I love tea, it helps me along. Though our winters are not very severe, going for a walk is not possible. And then when spring comes I wonder why can’t I fit into my clothes!! 😏
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I can soooo relate! I was sorting through the closet and found a couple pairs of jeans that are just a little too tight to wear comfortably. So I’m saying no to a couple of things including candy and cookies (I had considered baking some today but decided to just say no)! Tea is not my favorite beverage. Though the chai tea smells really good, it sadly does not taste how it smells…
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Yeah, saying no to sweets helps but I just can’t do that!!
I drink Darjeeling tea which should be had black. I know chai smells good but it is an acquired taste.
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My father was a big tea drinker and my husband is too. I think it tastes like dirty dish water… I’ve tried chai and it is probably the only tea I’d drink but I’d have to be desperate.
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Lol I hope that never happens with you!
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I had iced tea once when I was dressed in full Civil War re-enactment gear – taffeta dress, corset, camisole, 2 petticoats, a hoop skirt, pantaloons, stockings, a jacket, bonnet and hair snood, cotton gloves and a parasol. It was late July and the temperature was hovering at 95F. The sun was beating down and I was dehydrating to the point that I really was in danger of swooning. That tea was cold and I gulped down a 16 oz. tumbler in record time… I generally don’t put myself in those situations any more (stopped doing the re-enactments once I had children – no time)!
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Omg! Dressed in so many layers! That must have been so suffocating. Do you have any pics of that?
Iced tea must have been very welcomed then! 😅
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I have some very old polaroid photos that are all yellowed… it was well before the digital age. I had won a costume contest for authentic construction and fabric. I had made everything by hand – including the gloves. (the hoop skirt frame was bought – and cost me $$$ since getting a hoop not made of plastic was important)!
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Oh great!
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I feel your pain. When I worked 3rd shift I ran across this. I would come home and go to sleep just as the sun was coming up and by the time I woke up when the kids were coming home from school, it was setting. December to January here it’s getting dark by 4PM. I’d get maybe an hour or two of sun. Vitamin D made a huge difference for me until I just decided that 3rd shift was bad for my health.
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I’m taking Vit D and it seems to help – but not enough to really energize me. another doctor’s appointment next week and we’ll see. My father worked 3rd shift for years and it was very hard on him. I think it contributed to his eventual health issues including his chronic heart failure and diabetes.
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Too bad that your Planet Fitness doesn’t enforce the mask rule; ours does. Most of the time, though, I have to incorporate a variety of activities-from hiking in the snow (Sunday’s adventure) to faithfully taking my Essential Oil supplements, every evening, to keep the immune system hopping.
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They try but when the guy on the treadmill behind you is huffing and puffing with the mask on his chin it becomes problematic. Of course the rule breakers pull the mask up when the employees make a tour of the area… That’s why I don’t want to go there.
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I get exercise from karate and the kids but I’d love to get some really good sleep.
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I’m lucky that I can sleep easily. Still I find that as I age I get fewer hours of “good” sleep even as my total hours goes up… sometimes we just can’t win.
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