Time Change

"Spring ahead, Fall back". We've done it every year of our lives, but it never gets any easier. I always think of spring as the hard one — I hate losing that hour of sleep, and feeling for the next week like I'm getting up so much earlier than is natural for one of my species. This past spring it was a bit easier. We moved to Ontario just few days before Daylight Saving Time began, so we actually just switched back to Atlantic Time, which our bodies hadn't adjusted away from yet anyway. In the fall we get an extra hour of sleep! Bonus! So why do I feel so exhausted?

Yesterday I moved around in slow motion, feeling (and I'm sure looking) like a zombie, for most of the day. I just couldn't seem to summon the energy for anything substantial. I tried to work on the armoire, but I needed a new tack cloth and so I blamed my lack of progress on that. I went to a mall near my home to do some Christmas shopping, and I did pick up a few things at Zellers, but as I walked past all the other stores it just felt like too much work to go in and actually look for anything. The headache started just before the kids came home from school, and as the Tuesday routine wound up into full swing, it only intensified. The large English Toffee cappuccino I picked up at Tim Hortons, while very yummy, did little to increase my energy state. By the time I brought Janelle home from the church and put her to bed, I was ready to fall into bed, too. But there was laundry to do, so I stayed up to finish it. When Chris and Connor got home from basketball an hour later, I was flaked out on the couch watching a new episode of Glee.

I know I should have gone to bed then. But it was 9:00, and how do we get used to the time change if we just go to be early? Chris and I hadn't seen each other all day, so I wanted to stay up and visit with him a bit. Laying sprawled out on separate couches flicking channels isn't exactly quality time, though. I came up to bed at 11:00, and by then I had gotten a bit of a second wind, so I settled in with a good book, and was still reading when Chris came up an hour later. I was sending a message to my body: "Fine, if you want me to stay up later, I'll stay up later. And I'll get up later, too!"

The problem is, that doesn't work. I blame it on the kids. My children could stay up until midnight and still get up at 7:00 a.m., like clockwork. That makes it very hard for their bodies to adjust to the time change. I almost look forward to the days when I will have to drag their sleep-lovin' teenage bodies out of bed (but I'm starting to think that's a myth!) Neither Chris nor I are morning people (far from it!) so I don't know why our kids are so insistent on daily rising with the sun. Monday morning I heard Connor starting his day at 6:15. To be fair, I had forgotten to set his clock back, so he thought it was 7:15. Since they don't leave for school until 8:45, I encourage them to stay in their beds at least until 7:00. But once he was up, there was no going back to sleep. And once his sister heard him up, she was right there with him. And of course, hearing all this, I wasn't going back to sleep any time soon. So we were all exhausted. Both Monday and Tuesday we have all neared our breaking point right around homework time after school. Connor claimed he was "too tired" to figure out his homework, and Janelle was "too tired" to go through her whole piano practice. And I was "too tired" to fight about it!

I am determined that today will be more productive. I have a list, in my head, but I may actually write it down. This blog post was first on the list. I haven't even had breakfast yet. That's next on the list. I am going to move through the day, and no matter how tired I am, I'm just going to keep moving. This time change is playing havoc with my body, but I will WIN! And hopefully by next week we will all be functioning normally in Eastern Standard Time.