Falling Back Into Sleep

Every November, we “gain” an hour.

This sounds great in theory: an extra hour of rest, of stillness, of being cocooned in a blanket while watching the latest HBO miniseries. I’m sold. Where’s the clipboard to sign up?

In practice, however, most of us feel worse after adjusting the clocks. Our pets certainly don’t buy the time change, and neither do our own bodies. Our internal clocks, powered by a circadian rhythm and more caffeine than we’d like to admit, revolt. Suddenly, we’re wide awake at 5 a.m. or staring at the ceiling fan well past midnight, feeling like something invisible has been knocked slightly off its axis.

This is the effect of the collective jet lag that is Daylight Saving Time. Paired with the early dusk, the shifting weather, and that creeping seasonal heaviness, sleep starts to feel less like a nightly reset and more like a complicated relationship.

Our brains are wired to track light. Morning sunlight cues cortisol, nudging us awake, while darkness stage-whispers to melatonin that it’s time to power down. When daylight abruptly shifts, as it is scheduled to do this November 2, we become dysregulated. We feel foggy and sluggish. Motivation? I don’t know her. Even people who ordinarily “sleep fine” notice that their rest feels lighter, choppier, and less satisfying.

This is where CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I) comes in. It’s the no-frills, deeply practical fix. It’s the evidence-based side of rest: retraining your brain to understand that bed equals sleep, not scrolling; learning how to wind down before you hit the pillow instead of hoping pure exhaustion will do the job. Essentially, CBT-I treats sleep like a skill—something that can be practiced and strengthened.

If you’ve been feeling out of rhythm lately (tired, sluggish, and restless), Fall can do that to people. The shifting light and shorter days can knock our sleep off course. That also makes this the perfect season to recalibrate and rebuild that gentle runway into nighttime rest.