At a glance…
- On Sunday, October 4, 2026, in many states around the country, the clocks will go forward at 2 am AEST. Meaning we all will get one hour less in bed.
- Not getting a standard eight-hour sleep can impact you in several ways.
- We consult a sleep expert on how to get the most out of our sleep.
Daylight saving is almost here, which means longer evenings, warmer weather and – for many of us – the slightly painful prospect of losing an hour of sleep.
On Sunday, October 4, clocks will move forward by one hour in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.
While changing the clocks sounds simple enough, our bodies aren’t quite as easy to reset. Sleep experts have long stressed the importance of regular sleep and wake times for our internal body clock.
“The key is to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, as this helps set your body’s internal clock and improves the quality of sleep,” sleep expert Dr Carmel Harrington previously told The Australian Women’s Weekly.
So, as daylight saving changes the time on our clocks, what can you do to protect your sleep?
When does daylight saving start in 2026?
At 2am, clocks will move forward one hour to 3am, effectively costing us an hour overnight.
Daylight saving will then end on Sunday, April 4, 2027, when clocks move back an hour.
Not all of Australia observes daylight saving. New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory change their clocks, while Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory do not.
Why can a change in routine affect your sleep?
Good sleep isn’t only about getting the oft-quoted eight hours a night.
Sleep expert and Sleep First author Dr Jemma King told The Weekly that one of the biggest misconceptions about sleep is “that it’s all about clocking eight hours.”
“Time in bed and quality of sleep are two different things, and plenty of people get eight hours of fragmented, poorly timed sleep,” Jemma notes.
Routine is important, too. Going to bed and getting up at approximately the same time each day helps to anchor our body clock.
“Duration matters, but research tracking over 60,000 adults found that the people with the lowest risk of depression and anxiety weren’t those who slept longest; they were those who slept at the same times each night,” Jemma says.
That makes maintaining a regular routine particularly worth keeping in mind when the clocks suddenly shift by an hour.
How to prepare your sleep for daylight saving
You don’t necessarily need a complete overhaul of your bedtime routine. Instead, concentrate on maintaining the habits that help your body recognise when it’s time to sleep and wake.
Dr Harrington says consistency is key.
“The key is to go to bed and get up at the same time every day, as this helps set your body’s internal clock and improves the quality of sleep.”
The NSW Government also recommends gradually adjusting your bedtime by 15 minutes each night before the clocks change, rather than trying to make up the full hour at once.
Morning light can help with the adjustment, too. Getting outside in the morning provides your body with an important cue about when it’s time to be awake.
Pay attention to what you do before bed
If the time change has thrown you off, it can also be worth looking at the habits surrounding your sleep.
Alcohol, for example, might make you feel sleepy, but Jemma says that doesn’t necessarily translate into a better night’s rest.
“Unfortunately, it’s not true,” Jemma says. “I love a glass of red with dinner, but that glass of wine sedates you, which feels like falling asleep faster, but sedation is not sleep, and alcohol fragments your sleep cycles and blocks REM, the stage where emotional processing and memory consolidation happen.”
Caffeine can linger for longer than we might realise, too.
“It blocks the very chemical that makes you sleepy, and can stay in your system anywhere from 5 to 9 hours depending on your genes, liver health and hormones,” Jemma explains.
And if lying down earlier than usual leaves you staring at the ceiling with tomorrow’s to-do list racing through your head, Dr Harrington suggests tackling those thoughts before getting into bed.
“In the early evening, spend no more than 20 minutes writing down things that are of concern along with potential solutions. Then close the book and put it away,” she says.
What if you wake during the night?
A disrupted routine can make us particularly conscious of how much sleep we’re getting. But waking during the night isn’t necessarily something to panic about.
“Brief night wakings are a completely normal part of human sleep,” Jemma says. “It’s usually the panic about being awake, rather than the waking itself, that turns a two-minute stir into a two-hour ordeal.”
And there’s one particularly tempting habit she recommends avoiding.
“The worst thing you can do is check the clock and start calculating hours lost,” Jemma says. “That anxiety releases exactly the hormones that keep you awake.”
Instead, she advises: “Treat the waking as normal and keep the lights off.”
What if you’re still tired after the clocks change?
Feeling tired doesn’t necessarily mean you simply need to spend longer in bed. Sleep quality matters as well as quantity.
Signs that your sleep quality may need attention can include brain fog, irritability, afternoon energy crashes, and consistently waking up feeling unrefreshed.
“If several of those sound familiar, your sleep quantity might be fine, but your sleep quality is asking for attention,” Jemma says.
Persistent tiredness can have causes beyond your sleep routine, however, so if exhaustion continues despite addressing your sleep habits, it’s worth speaking with your GP.
What does daylight saving actually mean?
Daylight saving involves moving clocks forward by an hour during the warmer months so there’s more natural daylight in the evening.
An easy way to remember which direction the clocks move is the American expression “spring forward, fall back” – although, of course, we call the latter season autumn in Australia.
This October, that means when the clock strikes 2am AEST on Sunday, October 4, it jumps forward to 3am AEST.
Your phone and other connected devices will generally make the change automatically. For analogue clocks, watches and some household appliances, you’ll need to change the time yourself.
And if the prospect of losing an hour has you already calculating how much sleep you’ll get on Saturday night, remember Jemma’s advice: don’t get too fixated on the numbers. Good sleep isn’t just about how many hours you clock – it’s about the quality and consistency of those hours, too.
