The leaves start falling off the trees, the weather gets colder and there’s lots of leftover Halloween candy to eat up. Yep, it’s daylight saving time. While I LOVE getting that extra hour back, the switch can really mess with my schedule. It’s amazing that one-hour change can take such a toll on us. For me, it’s not only the time change, but seeing the days slowly get short and nights get longer. I try to maximize daylight hours, even in the rain (hello Seattle!), while aslo getting use to that early evening darkness.
While we can’t control the ‘lights’ outside, we can control our lighting situation inside our home. We’ve been using Hive smart products for the last six months and reaping all the benefits: from saving energy that lowers our electric bills, syncing our Hive smart products with our Amazon Alexa, and changing the brightness & warmth of our lights straight from my phone.
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The good news: You can take steps to help mitigate the effects of daylight saving time. These tips will help you do just that:
Change your clocks
Nowadays, most of our digital clocks on our electronic devices will do the time switch automatically for us. For those clocks with hands spinning around a dial or ones connected to appliances, remember to adjust the time backwards one hour before you go to bed!
Skip the naps
Avoiding naps is key for adjusting to the time change. It’s much better to push through the day and head to bed early in the evening. If you’ve got to take a nap, take them early and for no longer than 20 minutes.
Program your lights
Beware, it’s going to get dark early. Coming home to a dark home is no fun at all. It’s also not very safe when carrying a little one in your arms. We set our Hive Door Motion Sensor to trigger our Hive Active Light to turn on as I walk through the front door.
As it becomes darker earlier during most of the winter evenings (even as early at 3pm some days in Seattle), we turn on more lights on within our home. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember to turn them off when I leave the room. Having a 3-story townhouse (and a little kiddo) makes this task a way more difficult. We set up Hive Active Light for all the main lights we use in our home. Now I can sit on the couch watching television and turn the lights off. Not that this ever happens 😊 .
Avoid coffee & alcohol
Stimulants like alcohol and caffeine interfere with our body’s internal clock, which is already going to be thrown for a little loop with the time change. Treat the time switch like a mild form of jet lag and avoid going for an alcoholic nightcap for a couple nights.
Now skipping the coffee is easier said than done for me. So instead of stopping cold turkey for a couple days, I cut myself off at least 10 hours before I’m going to bed.
Resist the urge to sleep in
So many of us see the extra hour as an excuse to stay up later and sleep in longer. Yet, sleeping through the Sunday morning sunlight can leave you feeling out of sorts for the start of the week.
Instead, try to get up at the same time. Use the extra hour to go for a morning walk (and enjoying the sunshine) or make a hearty breakfast.
I set my Hive Cool to Warm White Hive Active Lights to turn on at a low warm light about 30 minutes before my alarm goes off to naturally wake myself up. I not only love that I can adjust the schedule of our lights, but also adjust the warmth AND brightness! With all of Hive’s products, these work seamlessly with your Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or IFTTT.
Prepare your kids
I never understood why my friends with kiddos hated daylight saving time so much. What’s to hate???? I now know.
This week leading up to daylight saving, we’ve been pushing back Declan’s bedtime by 10-15 minutes. We’re typically not super regimented on sticking to a strict bedtime, but I wasn’t messing around this week.
Pushing bedtimes meant also pushing naps back as well. To make this as easy as possible (and with minimal thought) I took a couple minutes to write out Declan’s schedule including wake up time, bed time, naps and feedings for each day this week taking in to account the daily incremental time changes. Plus, I just like schedules. So there’s that.
Make a list and check it twice
Here’s a list of some home maintenance things that we do twice a year at Daylight Saving:
- Check your flashlights you keep on each floor of your home to make sure batteries work in case of loss of power. If you don’t already have flashlights on each floor, it’s a really good idea to have them, just in case!
- Flip your mattress. To make sure your mattress wears evenly, you should flip it every six months. If you’ve got a pillowtop mattress, just rotated it instead of turning over.
- Wash your pillows. Read the tag on your pillows for instructions. If you cut your tags like I do, wash your pillows in warm water and opt for the gentle cycle. Tumble dry the pillows on low heat, fluffing and turning them often.
- Check your smoke detectors and at least once a year change the batteries in them if they’re running low. Also, check on the expiration date of your fire extinguishers.
- Clean the oven. In preparation for holiday parties, make sure your kitchen is running in tip-top shape. Whether you’ve got a self-cleaning option or doing some old-fashioned scrubbing, you’ll be happy you got this task complete before the holidays.
- Vacuum out your dryer’s vent. Lint stuck in the vent pipes, the space behind the dryer, is often the cause of dryer fires. There’s usually a crevice tool on your vacuum that can help you get the job done!
- Clean the coils behind your fridge. To keep it running efficiently, use your vacuum’s wand to clean away dirt and dust.
I hope your daylight saving transition goes as smoothly as possible!
If you’ve been thinking about smart home solutions, now’s a great time to get one. As the days are shorter and nights longer, we use our Hive smart products even more often. Hive’s got you covered with several plans to choose from. The benefits for our family have been HUGE:
- Easy, self-install approach (so easy, even I could do it!)
- Low monthly subscription rates
- Service features such as access to the Hive mobile app, on-demand customer service and ongoing warranty
- Makes your daily life easier and a whole lot less stressful (never worry about whether you left your hair straightener on again!)
- Unique features can double as a security system for your home!
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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hive. The opinions and text are all mine.
Glory of the Snow says
Great tips, I usually tend to stay in bed till late on Sundays!
Magda