How you can avoid losing sleep when the clocks go forward this weekend

It's almost that time of year again.

The clocks spring forward this Sunday - March 25 - at 1am, meaning longer and brighter days are ahead. And while we're delighted that it won't necessarily be pitch dark when we're walking home anymore, the lost hour of sleep is less than desirable. In fact, it feels even harder to see the clocks spring forward than it does to see them fall back, when we'd gain an extra hour. But, according to Dave Gibson, sleep expert and founder of thesleepsite.co.uk, there's a simple few steps we can take to make sure we're less groggy when the week starts. He explained:

"This is because it is hard to make yourself tired earlier. “The key is to ease yourself through the clocks change using this simple three-step time increment routine so you wake up, fully adjusted, in the new time zone on Sunday morning."

It turns out that it takes a few days to get close to ready for the time change. Here are the steps he recommends:

1. Thursday: Stop all caffeine Thursday afternoon. The restriction will allow you to sleep better that evening, ultimately setting up a more relaxed start to Friday.
2. Friday: Go without caffeine all day. This will make it easier to get to sleep ½ an hour earlier on Friday evening.
3. Saturday: You have now adjusted to a time zone that is ½ hour earlier than your norm. Adjust all your meals ½ hour earlier, too. Shift your bedtime another ½ hour earlier on Saturday evening so you are now one whole hour forward.

Dave added:

“On Sunday morning you can wake up refreshed, as you will be in the new time zone without losing any sleep. "All your mealtimes will also naturally fall into place, and you have no need to worry about whether you can manage to get to bed on time Sunday night as you will already be in sync with Irish Summer Time. “Use this period and technique to adopt a new sleep regime, moving your bedtime to one where you can wake up refreshed every day without the use of an alarm. "Ultimately, ditching the alarm clock is the fail-safe way of making sure you are getting enough sleep so you can be alert and focused throughout the day.”