It’s Time to Fall Back—And Yes, Daylight Saving Time Confuses Pets, Too
Animal behaviorist Karen London on how the time change will affect your cat or dog.
This weekend, millions of people will get an extra hour of sleep, courtesy of the switch to daylight savings time from standard time. While we are all thankful to be able to snooze for just a bit longer, after Sunday, we will be eating dinner in the dark for the foreseeable future.
Not everyone will change their clocks, though. While most of the country observes this ritual, in Arizona, only people who live on the Navajo Nation change their clocks, and those in Hawaii and Puerto Rico get to keep their sleep.
But if you are in that majority, and also happen to be a pet parent, it's a good idea to prepare yourself for this semi-annual annoyance. Daylight saving time is an outdated and unhealthy human construct, and many animals are having no part of it. Dogs and cats follow their circadian rhythms.
What is circadian rhythm?
Pets are inclined to be active at certain times of the day just as birds are inclined to sing at sunrise and coyotes tend to howl during the night. The tendency to behave in certain ways over the course of the day is part of the daily cycle called a circadian rhythm.
These internal clocks override our rigid time schedules, so many dogs (and many more catsopens in a new tab) will probably get up at the crack of dawn, as usual, ready to start the day.
The light/dark cycle of our rotating planet is responsible for the circadian rhythms that lead to the predictable timing of behaviors throughout the day. Light leads to changes in the hypothalamus, which regulates these daily rhythms. The pattern of light affects sleep cycles, hormone levels, brain wave activity and body temperature, all of which have an impact on behavior.
Helping your pet adjust to the time change
When the time shifts, pets are generally confused, and we have no way to explain this to them. Here are a couple of ways you can help your dog or cat adapt:
Keep a routine
It’s typical for pets to need a couple of days to adjust after the time change, but some take longer than others. Pets with a strong internal clock are heavily influenced by sunrise, sunset, and predictable feelings of hunger. As those cues still happen, pets who respond to them tend to struggle with the new schedule. Some dogs are also highly schedule-oriented, but they respond to human cues — the alarm clock, people getting out of bed, the sound of food being put in the bowl — and they are often able to adapt more quickly to the craziness of humans messing around with clocks.
Take it slow
It can be helpful to meet pets in the middle as they adjust to the time change. It may be easier if you can break up the hour difference and only adjust their schedule — walksopens in a new tab, feeding timeopens in a new tab, bedtime and waking up — by 15 to 30 minutes each day. If your schedule does not allow that kind of flexibility or you find that your dog gets in line with the new daily rhythm within a few days anyway, it may not be worth the extra effort. But, for the rare dog who struggles for a long time with the time change, breaking up the hour into smaller pieces for a more gradual adjustment can be a great kindness.
It can be tough for some pets (and let’s be real, for some people too) to adapt, so build in room for an adjustment period. Giving them a few extra minutes to take care of business might be all it takes to get them acclimated to the abrupt change in schedule.
