Summary

Daylight Savings Time in the Fall of 2025 starts on November 2, 2025. Changing the time we awaken and the time we go to bed can affect our mood. The change in the amount of sun during the day can affect our mood. We can make changes in our routines to help us adapt to Daylight Savings Time. Healthcare practice must be based on science. Call your elected officials and ask that they support funding for scientific research.

Fall 2025 Daylight Savings and Wellbeing

In many parts of the USA, November 2, 2025, is the date for Fall 2025 Daylight Savings Time (DST). The change in time can affect our mental health. Let’s discuss Fall 2025 Daylight Savings and Wellbeing.

Fall 2025: When Is Daylight Savings?

Recall that not every country observes DST and, if they do, it does not necessarily fall on the same date as in the USA.

Please consult the website Timeanddate for additional information:

https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/usa

Preparing for Falling Back: Fall 2025

The time of day change inherent to DST can have an effect on affective symptoms (mood). DST may affect our sleep routine and our meal routine, both of which can then impact our mood.

In order for us to adapt to gaining one hour for one day (November 2, 2025) and the subsequent change in what the hours on the clock represent (ie, 7am is actually the former 8am), I recommend that we adjust our bedtime and awakening time gradually prior to November 2, 2025.

For some people, the adjustment may be easy. For others, gaining one hour and trying to adjust on the following days to awaken at what would actually be an hour later can be disruptive to mood and anxiety.

And, let’s not forget that a subset of people experiences an elevated mood starting in the Fall or the Winter. This is in contrast to those who experience an increase in depressive symptoms in the Winter or in the Summer. I have seen this in clinical practice and I recognize that additional research is required to fully understand the issue.

In an article which included reviews of animal and human research, Mc Carty, Josephs, Kovtun, & Rosenthal (2021), discussed their hypothesis that the interaction between genetics, stressful life experiences, and sun exposure (solar insolation) based on geographical location impact the risk of depression and the risk for mania or hypomania. I wager that further research will expand our knowledge of the variables contributing to the onset of mania, hypomania, and depression. We can conclude from this article that seasonal changes affecting sun exposure and our circadian rhythms do affect our mood.

This is another reason to take care and prepare for DST.

How to Adjust Your Daily Routine for Fall 2025 Daylight Savings and Wellbeing

There are a number of strategies we can employ to adjust to DST.

Adjust Your Sleep Routine

Now is the time to change your bedtime habits, as much as your lifestyle will allow.

Go to bed 15 minutes later.
Get up 15 minutes later.
Maintain the adjustment for a few days and then add another 15 minutes to bedtime and awakening time (go to bed 15 minutes later, get up 15 minutes later).

In two weeks, if you make the change every seven days, you will have altered both your wake time and sleep time by 30 minutes.

Daily Routines and DST

Daily routines are impacted by DST. Changes in our sleep pattern result from Daylight Savings Time. The change in our sleep routine affects the release of melatonin and cortisol. Changes in the release of cortisol and melatonin over the course of a day and differences in the levels of cortisol and melatonin in persons diagnosed with bipolar disorder compared to persons without bipolar disorder have been identified. Changes in sleep routine may be a precursor to a manic, hypomanic, depressive, or mixed episode.

Daily routines are not only comprised of the time we awaken and the time we go to bed.

Some daytime activities cannot be adjusted because they are tied to a system outside of our control: these activities will be adjusted by the change in social clocks. These activities include when we need to be at work; when our children need to be at school; when our yoga class is held; when the gym is open; when the grocery store opens and closes; etc. There is a ripple effect because of other activities which take place before or after our daily activities of dinner/supper; breakfast; lunch; extracurricular activities for the children; bath time; meetings outside of work.

Maybe, the best we can do is to adjust our sleep and wake schedules. If we do, I think we will be a little bit ahead of the time change!

Embrace DST 2025 for Wellbeing

Be proactive. Make choices to safeguard and promote your wellbeing.

Remember to:

Consume a balanced diet.
Rest enough.
Reach out to friends.
Smile to your neighbours.
Drink alcohol sparingly.
Avoid cannabis which can interfere with the efficacy of your prescribed medications and can increase the side effects of your prescribed medications.
Express gratitude to those who enrich your life.
Be compassionate to strangers and friends alike.
Limit screen time.

Embrace the benefits of random acts of kindness to illuminate the goodness of humanity.

Guard yourself from disparaging the people who hold views opposing yours and/or who espouse a lifestyle different from yours. They are doing the best they can, just as you are. Maybe a little compassion is warranted. Let me cite “Desiderata”:

“Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.”

https://www.desiderata.com/desiderata.html

Take-aways: Fall 2025 Daylight Savings and Wellbeing

Surround yourself in a cloak of cultural events, including the arts, to expand your mind and your heart.

Contact your federally elected officials and ask them to support legislation which adequately funds scientific research.

US Capitol Switchboard 202.224.3121

Ask your medical and psychiatric providers for recommendations for your healthcare treatment. We must not operate based on what President Trump is “feeling” about something or the “rumours” he has heard. Sound health care practice is based on science, not on conspiracy theories as promulgated by the current US Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, JFK Jr.

Remember, wellbeing is a process not an outcome.

Harbour hope in our world of negativity and socially constructed chaos. We will overcome, together.

To boost your positive emotional capital, take a listen:

Parade- This Is Not Over Yet: 2023 Cast Recording

Take care. Be safe. Stand tall for health, wellbeing, and democracy.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to substitute for a consultation with your mental health care professional team.

If you are thinking of hurting yourself or of hurting someone else, please CALL 9-1-1; CALL 9-8-8; or GO TO the nearest emergency room.

Selected References:

American Psychiatric Association (October 30, 2024). Two in Five Americans Say Their Mood Worsens in Winter; 29% Say “Falling Back” Hurts Their Mental Health. American Psychiatric Association Newsroom. Accessed online on September 27, 2025, at https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/news-releases/apa-poll-mood-changes-in-winter

CAMH (2025). You’ve heard of the winter blues but what about summer depression? CAMH News & Stories. Accessed online on February 15, 2025, at https://www.camh.ca/en/camh-news-and-stories/summer-depression

Marchant, J. (July/August 2024). A Buried Ancient Egyptian Port Reveals Connections Between Distant Civilizations. Smithsonian Magazine. Accessed online on September 22, 2024, at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hidden-ancient-egyptian-port-reveals-180984485/

McCarty, R., Josephs, T., Kovtun, O., Rosenthal, S.J. (July 5, 2021). Enlightened: addressing circadian and seasonal changes in photoperiod in animal models of bipolar disorder. Transl. Psychiatry, 11, 373. Accessed online on September 27, 2025, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-021-01494-5

UN Innovation Network. June 15, 2023. The Neuroscience of Peace and Conflict. Accessed online on March 9, 2025, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxJPHLbipNM

Zaki, J. (May 14, 2020). Catastrophe Compassion: Understanding and Extending Prosociality Under Crisis. Trends Cogn. Sci, 24(8): 587-589. Accessed online on November 17, 2024, at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7221394/#:~:text=Extending%20Catastrophe%20Compassion&text=Floods%2C%20bombings%2C%20and%20earthquakes%20are,boundaries%20that%20typically%20separate%20people.

Nota Bene:

USA Government websites are being purged by the current Trump Administration to align the website content with the regime’s political agenda. Please note that any government website cited in this and other posts on this website may no longer contain evidence based or historically correct information. Thus, I am trying to avoid including any references or resources which derive from a USA government website. This is not bias; I take this action in an effort to maintain a factually sound content in my posts.