Welcome to Colleen’s Corner. This is a column meant for fun and some information About myself: I am a Freelance Photographer you often see me on the side of the road or in various places taking photos of different things animals, birds, places, people etc. l have lived in Lumby for over 8 years, you have seen my photos in the newspaper (Lumby Valley Times) and once in awhile in the Vernon Morning Star, and the Lumby Art Gallery. Photography is my passion. Disclaimer: The information on some of my photos that I write about a lot of times come from the Internet or books I research them, hopefully the facts are as close to the truth as I can come.
By Colleen Fielding
Here it is again, that stupid time of year when we adjust our clocks to “spring forward”. I hate it when we have to adjust our clocks spring forward and fall back.
I don’t know about you but my body can’t adjust that easily. This morning I woke up and the clock said 5:00 am but my body and mind said it was really only 4:00 am. It took me sometime before I fell back to sleep, 4:00 am is just too early for me. My usual time is between 5:15-5:45 am.
So for the last couple of days I have been waking up feeling tired. I know this will only last for about a week or so, but it’s still hard on me.
Falling back is not as bad as spring forward, as when you set your clocks back in the fall you get that extra hour of sleep, but springing forward you lose that extra hour and sometimes more.
Did you know there is a name for what happens to our bodies and minds when we have the time changes, it’s called Circadian Misalignment. It’s a disruption from lack of sleep and can lead to numerous health concerns for all of us including depression, heart attacks, strokes, car crashes, workplace mistakes, mood changes, sometimes physical health like cramps in your joints that were never there before, and so much more things can happen to your body when the clocks are set to lose an hour of sleep. Studies have found that when we adjust our clocks to spring forward more of all these things can happen and very little of them occur when we set our clocks back.
But did you know that humans are not the only ones affected by the time changes, animals are as well . Their walk, feeding and sleeping times are different, they can become confused and stressed, sometimes they might be more vocal, restless, anxious, which could cause them to have accidents in the house even for the best well trained pet. To help them out try to stay on their schedule as close as possible, be patient with them as it could take a couple of days for them to adjust to the new time change. With some pets it could take longer for them to adjust, in this case take your dog out for a little bit longer walk in the evening to help their internal time clock.
There are ways to help our bodies and minds adjust to the new times, we can try going to bed about 15- 20 minutes earlier than usual about a week before the time changes. When going to bed, have a dark bedroom, cool and quiet. Don’t have any alcohol and leave all your electronics off
When you wake up go outside for a bit to get the morning light into your system, this helps to reset your internal clock. Have your last coffee of the day by 2:00 pm.
I don’t usually agree with the guy across the border and his inept friend, but this time I have to agree with them that we should cancel the time change and leave it at one time only.
Let’s hope this happens soon.
