7-day guide to turning back the clocks
The “extra hour of sleep” you get from turning back the clocks is a bit of a trap, and the hour isn’t even the hard part. The early sunset is. Your body runs on routine, so this plan spends the week building one that makes the switch easy.
Set your bedtime, and your wake time
You’ve heard this one before. This is the week it actually matters: pick a bedtime and keep it every night, weekends included, with a reminder 45 minutes ahead so winding down starts on cue instead of willpower.
A consistent sleep window is the strongest anchor your body clock has. Irregular sleepers take days longer to adjust.
With your Loftie: set a Bed Signal on your Clock or Lamp, a gentle nightly cue to start winding down. Learn more
Take your phone out of bed
Charge it outside the bedroom tonight, or at least across the room. Swap the scroll for something that ends: a chapter, a meditation, ten slow breaths.
It isn’t just the light. Every notification spikes alertness right when your brain should be powering down.
With your Loftie: Drift mode blocks distracting apps the moment your phone enters the bedroom. Play a sound bath on the Clock instead. Learn more
Get outside, twice
Once in the morning and once in the late afternoon, even for ten minutes, even when it’s grey. Stack it onto something you already do: the morning coffee, the school run, the dog.
A cloudy sky is still ten times brighter than a bright room. And since the hardest part of the change is the early sunset, not the hour, that afternoon light is the most valuable habit on this page.
With your Loftie: dark when you wake? Your Lamp’s sunrise alarm gives your brain a light cue before you open the curtains. Learn more
Protect your wind-down
After dinner, put the phone somewhere out of reach. Use the hour to read, stretch, or talk to the people you live with.
Sleep isn’t a switch, it’s a descent. A calm runway lowers heart rate and cortisol, so the bedtime you set on Day 1 actually feels sleepy.
With your Loftie: tap your Loftie Card to lock distracting apps for the evening. Learn more
Last coffee by noon
Enjoy your caffeine early and cap it at midday. Craving the ritual later? Make it decaf or herbal tea. Same cue, same comfort, none of the chemistry.
Caffeine’s half-life is about five hours, so a quarter of a 3 pm coffee is still in your blood at 1 am, quietly blocking the pressure to sleep.
Keep mealtimes steady
Eat at regular times today, especially dinner, and finish it two to three hours before bed. Mealtimes are part of the routine your body is learning this week.
Light sets the clock in your brain, but food sets the clocks in your gut, liver, and metabolism. Steady mealtimes keep them moving together.
Stay up 10–15 minutes later
Tonight only, push bedtime 10–15 minutes later. Even eat dinner 15 minutes later. Keep tomorrow’s wake time the same. Kids and pets wake on the old clock, so nudge their dinner and bedtime too.
Your body clock shifts comfortably in 15-minute steps. Tonight’s nudge absorbs part of the hour before it even happens.
With your Loftie: move tonight’s Bed Signal 15 minutes later. Back to normal tomorrow. Learn more
Sunday morning, the clocks go back
Wake up in the new time
Keep your usual bedtime, wake-up, and mealtimes on the new clock time. If you normally get up at 7, get up when the clock says 7. Your body may wake a little early the first morning; if it does, get up and into the daylight rather than dozing on. The long lie-in is the trap, adding jet lag on top of the time change.
People call this the easy clock change, yet the week after still brings real dips in mood and energy. Not this time. A week of consistent cues means the shift lands on a trained clock, and most people adjust in a day or two.
With your Loftie: your Clock updates to the new time on its own. Bed Signal and your alarm hold the line while your body catches up. Learn more
