It's That Time of Year Again

Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate, loathe, detest and despise DST. I've had some friends tell me they missed my annual spring rant and rave on Facebook, since I gave that up some time ago. They all think it's funny. 

Today, we are not amused.

In fact, we are downright pissy. And tired. And counting down to November 3, the Glorious Return of my beloved Standard Time...in 236 days. Yes, I am counting...I have a countdown app on my phone. 

I purposely did not do much ranting and raving about Dumb Stupid Time this year, as an experiment. Do I feel crappy because I talk myself into it? Or do I feel crappy because I don't handle the stupid time change well. 

Let's see...today is Tuesday. The Dumb Stupid Time change was Sunday. I could hardly stay awake Sunday morning at church, and felt tired and dizzy all day. My dishes are piled up. So is the laundry. I spent all of yesterday in my pj's and robe. Haven't showered in two days because I don't have the energy and don't really care. All I want to do is sleep, because then I don't feel dizzy and out of sorts. And mostly, I just want to scratch people's eyes out. Go ahead, Mitch...get within arm's reach, I dare you.

There are a lot of people out there who love Dumb Stupid Time, they don't understand how anyone could not like it. There's other people out there who think people like me just need to "suck it up and deal with it" because it's "only one hour." These are the people who have no problem adjusting to the time change, so they think everyone should be like them. Here's a news flash for you...not everyone is like you. Haven't you noticed that yet? We look differently, act differently, react differently (if you are allergic to peanuts, then does everyone have to be allergic to them? No, that is ridiculous). So why does the way the Dumb Stupid Time change affects different people have to be the same? It doesn't, that is moronic. 

Maybe you have no trouble with it. That's lovely. Goody for you. But quit saying to the rest of us who do have trouble with it to "suck it up" because it's "only one hour." Actually, it's not "only one hour", as the change to Dumb Stupid Time messes with our natural Circadian rhythms: 

"While we generally think that the time changes enforced by the DST transitions are 'only an hour,' they have far more drastic effects if viewed in the context of the circadian clock's seasonal changes," Roenneberg said. "This seemingly small hour translates to a repeat of 10 weeks in the annual progression of the relationship between our sleep-wake cycle and dawn--four weeks in spring and six weeks in autumn. In effect, it's as if the entire population of Germany, for example, is transported to Morocco in spring and back again in autumn."

Indeed, "after taking the seasonal adjustment into account, our results show that the human circadian clock does not adjust to the DST transition," Roenneberg said. "This is especially obvious in the late chronotypes in spring when one looks at their daily activity patterns. Essentially, their biological timing stays on standard, winter time, while they have to adjust their social schedules to the advanced clock time throughout the summer."

And

In a second study, they analyzed the timing of sleep and activity for eight weeks around each of the two DST transitions in 50 people, taking into account each individual's natural clock preferences, or "chronotypes," ranging from morning larks to night owls. They found that the timing of both sleep and peak activity levels readily adjust to the release from DST in autumn, but that the timing of activity does not adjust to the start of DST in spring, especially in those who like to stay up late and sleep in. (emphasis mine)

Daylight Savings Time Disrupts Humans' Natural Circadian Rhythym, Science Daily

I am definitely a night owl, and I can absolutely attest to the fact that Dumb Stupid Time jacks me up. And not just for a few days or a week while I "adjust." It takes months, if at all. I get to where I can at least function somewhat, but the fatigue and odd feeling of living in a parallel universe never completely goes away. I don't enjoy spring or summer at all so that "extra" hour of daylight means nothing to me, other than it ruins 75% of my year. Every year. 

Thanks again, Mitch. I'm still mad at you and so glad you're not our dictator governor anymore. Go rot in all that extra daylight.

The S.O.S. Challenge

S.O.S. can mean several different things...Save Our Schools, HELP!!!, Switched On Schoolhouse. Anything with an S-O-S configuration, really. Right now, for me, it is an acronym for Sick Of Stuff. It's time to get serious about Stuff around here.

As I've gotten older, wiser, and more free of debilitating emotional issues, I have found that I'm somehow a better housekeeper. Do not read I'm A Perfect Housekeeper and My Home Should Be Featured In BHG there, please! I just mean that my home does not look like my bedroom did as a child...most of the time. If the kids have been running amok, well, it might look kind of like that. But, in general, you can see the floor and dont' have to walk on Stuff or shovel a path through Stuff to get around. The OTHER horizontal surfaces around here, however, typically have lots of Stuff on them. And I hate it.

For instance, my kitchen counter is a long L-shape wth a stove at one end. There is a particular corner that I have dubbed The Black Hole. Not sure why, actually - black hole implies that things go in and are never seen again. I guess it's more of the Event Horizon thing...if it gets close to that particular area, it ends up on The Pile. I do usually see it again, when I get sick of the Overflowingness and decided to "declutter" the Black Hole. 

I have wanted Simplify for a long time, but I'm not sure what has held me back...and still does.  When I'm away from our home, say at church for example, I get this overwhelming desire to go home and start Chucking Stuff. I feel up to it, I feel Inspired and Motivated. And, I get home and find that I just can't do it. Even though I haven't touched the papers in a certain file in my file cabinet for at least two years, I can't bring myself to throw them away. It's pathetic. 

Yet I long to be Free Of Stuff. I hate the choking, claustrophobic feel of all these things. Things that gather dust. Things that stare at me and remind me how disorganized I am. Things I am in bondage to, because I can not throw them out or give them away. Things that aren't worth much of anything, really. Sometimes, I think about things like What if there was a Natural Disaster and We Lost Everything. Would I survive? Of course I would. I don't really NEED most of this stuff! 

And so, I have decided to challenge myself to fill up a box or bag every day of Stuff to remove from my home. Whether it goes to the trash can, consignment shop or thrift store doesn't matter. It doesn't even matter what size of box or bag, as long as something goes out of the house every day.  It's just got to go. I'm calling it the SOS Challenge. I'm going to start this September 1, 2012...feel free to join me and share what your're doing! 

I love freecycle, but I can't wait around for people who may or may not show up to collect whatever I'm freecycling....I know myself too well. That may work for you, but it won't for me. There's a Goodwill drop box a few blocks from me, and if I have a small bag, I can also get some exercise and ride my bike down to drop it off. I also go to an area that has a Goodwill store (and I get coupons when I drop off my donations...wait, that would probably work against me!). And if nothing else, I can set it out by the road with a "FREE" sign and it will probably be gone in no time. 

Any challenge needs an outline, rules, goals....I'm going to think on those things and post what I come up with in a few days. For now, I have to work on psyching myself up for this challenge. To get rid of whatever it is that hinders me so I can get rid of all this Stuff that does not make me happy or serve a useful purpose in my life. 

DST 2012…It’s All in My Head? Yep, Apparently

My hatred of Dumb Stupid Time is rooted
deeply in my brain

I’m a little slow in posting my annual I-Hate-Dumb-Stupid-Time-and-Mitch-Daniels blog post. You can thank Dumb Stupid Time for that. I could barely function yesterday since we all, like well-programmed robots, dutifully moved our clocks forward one hour in an inane effort to “save daylight.” Well, I didn’t. I haven’t changed a clock since we were forced to start doing it here in Indiana in 2006. I refuse to do it. I pack my Normal Time watch away and go watch-less so I don’t have to change a clock. My husband does the dirty deed here. It’s my only recourse against this ridiculous scheme. Well, the only one socially and legally acceptable anyway. And, since I love my family and have no desire to do any time in prison, I keep my other countermeasures safely locked in isolation in the deep, dark recesses of my mind. The part that is particularly affected by Dumb Stupid Time.

Many people are aware of my hatred of DST. In case you haven’t heard my ranting and raving before, let me highlight the reasons why I despise it:

1. It’s just plain stupid. You have the same amount of daylight no matter what your clock says. You don’t “save” any. You don’t get “more.” I love this picture floating around the internet, it says it very, very  well.
   
   
2. It was forced upon the citizens of Indiana by an egomaniacal bully of a governor – Mitch Daniels. I voted the man into office the first time, and I sincerely regret it. “In his Jan. 18 State of the State Address, Gov. Daniels called the state's "quirky treatment of time itself" a handicap to Indiana businesses.” Isn’t it far more “quirky” to think we can actually change time? Isn’t it more natural to just let time be time? He also claimed the problem was that no one knew what time it was in Indiana. I’m sorry, but if Indiana never changes, then it is constant. And if you can’t figure out a constant, I don’t think the problem is with the constant…it’s with the people who aren’t intelligent enough to figure out something that never changes. And, speaking of businesses…where are all those businesses that were supposed to flood the state because they finally understood what time it was in Indiana? This probably had more to do with lining someone’s pockets than anything else. That and making sure that everyone knew what a big, powerful man Mitch Daniels is.
   
   
3. It doesn’t save energy. I don’t know about you, but our utility bills have gotten bigger and bigger every year. We’ve lived in the same house for the last four and a half years, and there is no “energy savings” that I can see.  I finally found the study that shows the move to DST actually costs the state of Indiana…more specifically the voters and taxpayers of Indiana, $9 million more! The study was done in 2008, so you know it’s costing us more than that now. Interestingly, Japan doesn’t do DST…and they’re supposed to be so much more advanced than us. Hmmm. I’d definitely say they are more intelligent.
   
   
4. Lastly, but most importantly, is that it makes me feel like crap for TWO THIRDS of the year. It’s getting worse and worse every year. I am not “adjusting” to it.  Monday, the day after the dumb time change, I felt tired, crabby, dizzy and hung over all day. I stayed in my pajamas and napped whenever I could. I went to bed at what my body knew to be 9:00 pm and slept fitfully…waking at least six times throughout the night. I feel like I could bite the heads off some small, furry woodland creatures today. It’s now, according to the clock, 11:07 am. I am not any more motivated to remove myself from my pajamas today than I was yesterday. I will spend the next [244 days,12 hours, 50 minutes and 8 seconds…] still feeling tired, crabby and generally “off kilter.” Many of the people who hear me complaining about Dumb Stupid Time undoubtedly think that it’s just “all in my head”. Turns out they are right…to a degree.

Our natural Circadian rhythms are regulated by the SCN. The suprachiasmatic nucleus or nuclei, abbreviated SCN, is a tiny region on the brain's midline, situated directly above the optic chiasm. It is responsible for controlling circadian rhythms. The neuronal and hormonal activities it generates regulate many different body functions in a 24-hour cycle, using around 20,000 neurons. [Source: Wikipedia]Some of those body functions include mood regulation. DST can be very bad for bi-polar people. Isn’t it interesting that it’s located right above our optic chiasm? This means that it takes its cues from the light or darkness in our environment. So, messing with the clocks messes with the natural order of things. How typically human.

It is also typically human to assume that a small change in something won’t really affect anything else. Or, just because it doesn't bother YOU, then no one else must be affected by it either. You know, just a small tax increase here and an a few pennies’ tax added on there won’t affect anyone really. You won’t even notice it. But the broader picture shows that slapping a few pennies’ tax on a few billion people equates to a whole lotta change. And while it may not affect YOU personally, some group, government entity or politician somewhere is going to benefit greatly from that little bit of change squeezed out of your pocket.

It’s also very interesting that there really haven’t been a whole lot of studies done on the effects of forcing people to follow a day that is completely unnatural.  However, there are a few intelligent, non-ostrich type people who seem to think more studies are needed to assess the long-term impact of forcing people to follow Dumb Stupid Time. Given the social deterioration in our country over many decades, I think it’s worth a look to see if there is any connection. Believe me, it is a very tenuous thread that connects me to sanity right now.

Despite the fact that approximately 1.6 billion people experience DST, he [Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich, Germany] continued, few studies have investigated its impact on human physiology and behavior. The results of the few, relatively small studies that have addressed the question have generally suggested that sleeping patterns adjust within days.

In a large survey, which examined the sleep patterns of 55,000 people in Central Europe, Roenneberg's group now shows that the timing of sleep on free days follows the seasonal progression of dawn under standard time, but not under DST.

In a second study, they analyzed the timing of sleep and activity for eight weeks around each of the two DST transitions in 50 people, taking into account each individual's natural clock preferences, or "chronotypes," ranging from morning larks to night owls. They found that the timing of both sleep and peak activity levels readily adjust to the release from DST in autumn, but that the timing of activity does not adjust to the start of DST in spring, especially in those who like to stay up late and sleep in.

"While we generally think that the time changes enforced by the DST transitions are 'only an hour,' they have far more drastic effects if viewed in the context of the circadian clock's seasonal changes," Roenneberg said. "This seemingly small hour translates to a repeat of 10 weeks in the annual progression of the relationship between our sleep-wake cycle and dawn--four weeks in spring and six weeks in autumn. In effect, it's as if the entire population of Germany, for example, is transported to Morocco in spring and back again in autumn."

Indeed, "after taking the seasonal adjustment into account, our results show that the human circadian clock does not adjust to the DST transition," Roenneberg said. "This is especially obvious in the late chronotypes in spring when one looks at their daily activity patterns. Essentially, their biological timing stays on standard, winter time, while they have to adjust their social schedules to the advanced clock time throughout the summer."

*Reference:  Kantermann et al.: "The Human Circadian Clock's Seasonal Adjustment Is Disrupted by Daylight Saving Time." Publishing in Current Biology 17, 1--5, November 20, 2007. DOI 10.1016/j.cub.2007.10.025

The researchers include Thomas Kantermann and MyriamJuda of Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich; Martha Merrow of University of Groningen in Haren; and Till Roenneberg of Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich.
[Source: Science Daily]

All the underlining and red font color above is my doing. Finally, proof that it’s not really all in my head. You see, I’m a night owl. I’ve had to pretend not to be since having children, and it’s very, very, very hard. I hate getting up early in the morning. I want to wake up with the sun, not in the dark…although I do love the quiet before the kids are up, the quiet in the deep, dark hours of the night is what I crave.

So, all my crabby, groggy, hung-over-ness is not because I’ve talked myself into it, it’s because it is COMPLETELY UNNATURAL TO MOVE THE CLOCK FORWARD IN THE SPRING AND MY BODY DOES NOT ADJUST TO IT. If your body does, then good for you. Mine, however, does not. And I will never like Dumb Stupid Time because (see the list of reasons above, if you missed them) it completely goes against my nature.

So, yes, you are right…it IS all in my head…just not the way you think.

The Miracle Pill (Updated 8-3-11)

Have you ever wished you could just take a pill and everything would be all better? It’s hard to believe that it could be that simple, but for me…well, I think I really have found a “miracle pill.” You don’t really know how bad you feel until you suddenly feel good. I mean really, really good. And you actually feel like living, not just surviving, each day. Let me introduce you to my new friend, Levothyroxine…

I have suspected for years that my thyroid was low, but any time it was tested, the result was always the same – normal. There’s a family history of low thyroid, so it seemed reasonable that the tiredness and fatigue, memory problems, irritability, increasing intolerance to cold, inability to focus and thinning hair just might be related to a hormonal imbalance such as low thyroid. But, if the test result is normal, then that can’t be the problem, right?

Wrong. I learned while researching thyroid problems that there is a grey area in the “normal” range…the higher the number on a TSH test, the lower your thyroid level is, so the closer you get to the upper limit of the normal range, the more likely you are to have symptoms of hypothyroidism. And when your numbers are at the high end of normal and you’re presenting with symptoms like those I listed above, they call that subclinical hypothyroidism. I discovered that while reading the book, The Thyroid Solution: A Revolutionary Mind-Body Program That Will Help You by Arem Ridha. I really felt empowered, after reading this book, to discuss my concerns with my doctor. I also feel fortunate that my doctor was willing to examine the possibility, as many doctors won’t even consider treatment for low thyroid if your test is “normal.”

Did you see that picture up there of the two tiny orange pills? Those are my “miracle pills”. I started taking the lowest dose there is, and a week later it felt like someone flipped a switch on in my head. For the first time in years - I’d say possibly for the first time in my adult life, and particularly in the last three years since having my son – I can think straight, concentrate, and focus. I have an energy level I have never, ever had as long as I can remember, which is great because I actually WANT to do things! I even physically move faster.I don’t feel like I’m wandering around in a fog anymore. In fact, I did more housework, cleaning, decluttering and organizing in four days than I’ve done in the last six months combined..or more! It’s simply amazing…one little bitty pill has completely changed my life. 

Now, if the doctor had just prescribed the Levothyroxine three months ago like I wanted to begin with, I’d have had three months of feeling good, and losing weight, under my belt…kind of makes me mad when I think about all the years I’ve spent feeling like poo and beating myself up because I just couldn’t “get it together”. 

Even though Levothyroxine is my “miracle pill”, I can’t forget that I have years of bad habits to overcome. I think it will be easier now that my brain is no longer a bowl of rice pudding, however. Because feeling good just feels amazing…especially when you realize just how bad you were feeling.

***UPDATE***

After taking levothyroxine for several weeks, I began to notice a gradual decline in energy level and motivation...returning almost to where I was before I started taking it, only I could still think more clearly. I called my doctor and we did blood tests again, the TSH test and A1C. I mentioned what I had found about metformin possibly causing thyroid levels to decrease but the nurse said "No, it doesn't do that." I find this interesting, because it was just like when I started taking metformin to begin with...initially I felt better (getting my blood sugar under control, I'm sure, was the factor there) but then after 4 to 6 weeks or so, I began to once again become lethargic and completely unmotivated and the mental fog began to increase again, after having subsided noticeably. The same thing happened here when I started taking the levothyroxine...and guess what? At the same time I started taking that, she increased the dose of metformin I was taking. A coinicidence? Maybe...but I have my doubts.  What I had read about the connection between metformin and lower thyroid levels was, of course, theory and more study is needed but it seems to me, in my case anyway, that there may be a connection.

My thyroid test showed a slight increase in thyroid hormone, which of course would account for the overall improvement in how I'm feeling, but since I'm still experiencing symptoms she went ahead and increased my dose. While I don't have that same level of energy I had when I first started taking it, over all, I feel better and hope this increase in dose will do it. At least she was happy with my A1C reading and didn't increase that dreadful metformin. I can't wait to get off of that!