On Sunday, 9 March, most of the US “springs forward” – or sets their clock an hour forward – for daylight saving time. This is a nice way of saying that most of the country loses an hour of sleep so they can enjoy more sunlight in the evening. This adjustment can be so disruptive to sleep cycles that some experts have dubbed the day after “Sleepy Monday.”
Although we spend roughly a third of our lives doing it, sleep can often feel elusive. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in three Americans sleep less than the recommended seven to nine hours a night. In the UK, a 2020 YouGov poll found that 18% of Brits sleep less than six hours a day, an amount experts described as “insufficient and unhealthy”.
