Experiment: slow DST switch
Hello people!
During the 2018 spring DST (daylight savings time) switch we had a few people on the Discord try to do a so called "slow DST switch" to see what happens. One did an 8m change per day, and the other one did a 6m change. Both reported feeling disoriented and overall bad; so bad infact that they had to stop the experiment and switch to the desired times immediately instead.
We would like to do another test during the coming DST switch (2018 fall) where several more people, both from Reddit and from the Discord would attempt the slow DST switch and report their overall feelings and such daily. The reason for doing this is that we could use the experiment as a source for how sensitive the schedules are to changes in circadian alignment, and thus how much flexing is allowed during adaptation for it to have no ill effects on the adaptation process.
The participants should be on a stable schedule and preferably be at least two weeks into adaptation or adapted. They should also stick to the planned times to sleep during the experiment.
Here we suggest a few different rates of the slow DST switch that people can do depending on how much their life allows it (we're interested in having participants from every group):
15m, 10m, 8m, 6m, 4m, 2m.
The participants should extend the time between the last nap and the first core but still keep the same length of the dark period as before the experiment.
For example, say you're doing a 10m switch on E2 (23:00-03:30, 08:00-08:20, 15:00-15:20),
day 0 sleep at your normal times, day 1 at 08:00-08:20, 15:00-15:20 23:10-03:40, day 2 at 08:10-08:30 15:10-15:30 23:20-03:50, day 3 at 08:20-08:40 15:20-15:40 23:30-04:00, and so on until the schedule is rotated an hour.
We wish you fill out the survey daily starting from a few days (3-4) before the switch all the way to a few days after the switch.
Thank you for participating and contributing to the community as a whole!
Posted Sep 30, 2018, 9:52 PM UTC · edited