When the clocks change

I love the changing seasons - the renewal promised by Spring with its feelings of expectation of things to come, the warmth and long, long days and evenings of Summer, the colour and crisp chill of Autumn along with that distinctive smell of loam and wood smoke, and the chill and frost of Winter with its long dark evenings reading or snuggled up by the fire. I love them all. What I hate is when the clocks change.

When the clocks change, at either end of the year, it takes me a fortnight, sometimes longer to adjust (which I suspect is more or less the amount of time it takes for the daylight hours to catch up on themselves, i.e. be the same as they were before the clocks changed) and for my internal body clock to make the necessary adjustments.

The Autumn change is always the worst, when it feels as if we are suddenly thrust into much shorter days, everything crammed into a few daylight hours - when in reality there are no fewer hours in day, just less light in the afternoon. 

I’m up early; I should be getting the benefit of the lighter mornings, but for some reason that meagre upside is lost on me. Instead it feels like I’ve waded into some unsettling tidal swirl. I have no idea what time it is and have a feeling of being out balance until my inner clock resets itself. Every year I just wish they would leave the clocks alone.

Anyway, today I was thinking about where that feeling comes from. My theory is that as the days shorten over the course of August and September (without any clock fiddling) we all slowly make a natural adjustment to reduced light levels, but then when the clocks change that comfortable natural progress is broken, and in fact reversed, so we are completely wrong footed and out of sync for a few days (or longer).

Yes, of course we recover and adjust, but I wonder if there is a measurable effect, an increase in accidents or errors or tiredness in the week after the clocks go back? I'm sure I'm less productive.

The upside of the darker evenings is picking up the craft projects and sometimes books that I put away at the beginning of the year when the days began to lengthen – the things too heavy, too hot or too fluffy to be worked on in the spring and summer.  So, this week, between working on the new book, I’m back making traditional rugs and am busy making rag-rug wreathes for Christmas – Autumn is definitely here!