The end of Daylight saving time is getting closer, which means shorter days and longer nights. According to a study by the Sleep Doctor, 25% of people say the time change affects their sleep habits. If you’ve had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep during time changes, here are a few ways to get your circadian rhythm (the body’s internal alarm clock) back on track.

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How to reset your body’s alarm clock

To promote healthy sleep hygiene and avoid the effects of sleep loss after daylight saving time, consider these tips.

1. Do not adjust your alarm time immediately after the time has been changed. After a few days to a week, your body gets used to the new time. Instead, consider taking a short 20-minute nap in the afternoon to give you more energy. Long napsHowever, you may feel sleepier.

2. Avoid alcohol, caffeine and unhealthy meals before bedtime. These substances cause sleep disruptions that prevent you from getting the quality seven to nine hours of sleep you need to maintain your physical and mental health.

3. If you are an early riser, go outside early in the morning to get some light. Light ensures that you remain more alert during the day and reduces the body’s production of melatoninwhich causes drowsiness. You can also consider a sunrise alarm clock. It lets natural light into your bedroom, so you wake up gently in the morning as sunlight would. Especially useful now that the sun rises later.

How Daylight Saving Time Affects Your Body

Your circadian rhythm is your body’s internal clock, which follows a 24-hour cycle. It plays an important role in dictating your sleep-wake cycleand it is strongly influenced by signals of light and darkness. When daylight saving time starts, it can slow down your circadian rhythm, making you feel sleepier in the morning when it’s still dark and more energetic in the evening when the sun rises later.

If you’ve ever traveled to a region with a different time zone than you’re used to, you’ve probably experienced a similar disruption to your circadian rhythm with what we call jet lag. For example, if you travel from New York to California, where there is a three-hour time difference, 9 p.m. will feel like midnight to your body and you will be much sleepier than normal.

At first glance, a small change in your routine may not seem drastic. However, studies have shown that disruptions caused by daylight saving time can have a significant impact on your sleep hygiene and overall health if you’re not careful.

The consequences of daylight saving time

According to a study, the average person sleeps about 40 minutes less on the Monday after daylight saving time starts. In addition to feeling sleepy, experts have also cited (in more severe cases) an increase in work accidents, heart attacks, mood swings, and even car accidents after switching from standard time (November to March) to daylight saving time. Poor sleep quality and changes in our sleep-wake cycle appear to be the driving forces behind these events, and it is a key argument for experts pushing for the abolition of daylight saving time.

Read more: Why your internal clock keeps you awake at night

The Suggested Benefits of Daylight Saving Time

On the other side of the coin, there has also been research that points to the benefits of observing daylight saving time. Although car crash deaths appear to increase the day after the change from standard time to daylight saving time, they may decrease in the long term, possibly due in part to the longer daylight hours. For this reason, there also seems to be a decrease in crime, because the chance of crimes occurring during the day is smaller.

In addition to the direct consequences for human health, daylight saving time also promotes less energy consumption. A 2008 Department of Energy study found that four additional weeks of daylight saving time saved 1.3 billion kilowatt hours, the equivalent of the amount of energy used by 100,000 homes in a year.

While experts continue to ponder the pros and cons of daylight saving time and whether we should observe it, there are things you can do in the meantime to combat its negative side effects.