Sleeping Like Shit This Week? Us, Too. Here's How to Get Back on Track

Greetings from our post-daylight saving-shift selves. Our brains feel pickled. Our eyelids, droopy. 

We’re sluggish, sleep-disoriented, and rolling up our sleeves to bully some trains because (ICYMI) we just learned that we don’t set our clocks back and forward in the United States out of, say, respect for Ma Nature or something. Instead, “time zones were introduced by the major railroad companies in 1883,” explains the Bureau of Transportation, “to resolve confusion and avoid train crashes caused by different local times”; It was “initially introduced by Germany during [WWII] to conserve fuel and power by extending daylight hours, [and] the United States soon followed suit.” 

All of that sounds really important. But why are we still getting an ass whooping from Father Time in 2022? We have holograms and 3-D printing. These days, sleep specialists agree that daylight saving time officially sucks. This is not Thomas the Tank Engine on Ice. This is our life. 

We have two choices here: pen cranky letters to Amtrak, or invest in some sleep-inducing (and improving) goods to help us reclaim the energy Daylight Savings has so stealthily milked from our bones in the night. We’ve got high-design sleep pillows, melatonin, weighted blankets, and more treasures that, in combo with a few baby sensory fruit videos, will hopefully revive us. 

We already included this body/world/brain dissociating pillow in our article on how to power nap like a pro, and it’s getting an encore because we can also wear it whilst banging our heads against the wall.

Kin Euphorics makes some of our favorite non-alcoholic spirits, and its Dream Light beverage is the kind of ethereal, pre-sleep beverage we’ve been dreaming of during REM. It’s made with reishi mushrooms, “oak, clove, ginger, cinnamon, and chili [to] support digestion and balance the palette,” plus a fairy dusting (.25 milligram) of melatonin. Perfect for serving pre-The Dark Crystal viewing.

We want to feel like we’re being sat on by a happy elephant seal on a light, misty morning off the California coast. The next best thing is a weighted blanket that’s the perfect shade of grey for “spill on me, drool on me, it’ll be fine.” This baddie comes in four different weight options, and reached the top of our list of best weighted blankets.

Sure, you could go for this emerald, mulberry silk mask from Brooklinen. Or you could pull this hat over your eyes and make sure your partner (or cat/resident poltergeist) gets to make eye contact with Shrek every time you pass out.

We used to think melatonin was a hippie-snake-oil, placebo effect pill for passing out, but your body really does produce melatonin a few hours before bed, says Johns Hopkins sleep expert Luis F. Buenaver, Ph.D., in order to get you ready for slumber. “Less is more,” he says, “Take 1 to 3 milligrams two hours before bedtime” and if it doesn’t work after one or two nights, move on to the next sleep-inducing drug or something.

Because we really don’t want to hear our neighbor’s distant Pornhub or the screams of the backyard cats today. This sound machine comes equipped with 22 unique sounds, from White Noise to Pink Noise to ocean sounds, including 10 different fan noises (shoutout all my box fan freaks).

This one was on our to-do list anyways. Brooklinen and Buffy both make amazing bedding, and there’s no better way to ensure you sleep like a log through the night than to spruce up your sheet situation. (Oh, and if you’re not on the linen train, you’re missing out.)

Happy slumbers, and see you when we “fall back.” Le sigh. 

The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story. Want more reviews, recommendations, and red-hot deals? Sign up for our newsletter.