Back to school: how to get your biological clock back on time?

After the holidays, how to get back to school or work?

As Sylvie Royan-Parola, president of the Morphée Network and psychiatrist specializing in sleep, explains, this rhythm "is not necessarily in line with that of the person", but there are techniques to get used to it as well as possible and resynchronize their biological clock.

Europe 1 tells you how.

Get up at a fixed time

It is the moment of awakening which is essential, because "at the level of the brain there are cells which have a role of clock. It is they which give you time thanks to an interaction with the light. rise, this is where the light information will be the most sensitive. It will resynchronize and give a time signal to our internal clock ", explains Sylvie Royan-Parola.

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So you have to "get up at the same time on weekdays and weekend days, at least during the first three weeks if you really want to re-train the clock".

A regularity which should not be deviated on weekends, according to the specialist.

“Ideally it's really the same time, if not half an hour, three-quarter of an hour later but not two hours and even less four hours later,” she warns.

For children, getting up early will tire them out and encourage them to "spontaneously go to bed earlier".

Conversely, forcing them to change their schedule overnight may not work. 

Make it easier to wake up 

To make this awakening easier, "there is certainly light, but it is quite violent to wake up with a strong light".

Also, Sylvie Royan-Parola recommends rather "a hot shower, to increase the core temperature" and then "to put yourself in a slightly bright environment and eat a little bit".

A little physical exercise is also helpful.

For children it can be the fact of "going to school on foot or by bike, rather than being dropped off by a parent. It saves time but it really does not resynchronize", explains the psychiatrist.

Prepare for bedtime 

If getting up is essential, do not neglect going to bed and in particular, "you have to really pay attention to what you do before", warns Sylvie Royan-Parola.

We must "avoid anything that brings light. Any screen is prohibited at least an hour before going to bed. Cell phones must be put in airplane mode, without sound and notification. A vibrating phone will split. sleep and that's a real problem ".

Replacing screens by listening to audio is a solution, "but what is problematic is that it is with headphones".

In all cases "you must program the end".

More generally, it is necessary to create "a somewhat calm atmosphere".

To avoid parasitic thoughts, "making a to do list" of things to do the next day, before going to bed, helps to avoid rehashing in bed.

"If we are really getting excited in bed, something is happening. It is better to get up, read a little book in the living room and go back to bed afterwards", she recommends, but without compromising on waking time.