The Clocks Go Back. Your Gut May Take Longer to Adjust

There are few things about the arrival of darker evenings that inspire much enthusiasm, although an extra hour in bed is usually enough to soften the blow.

Unfortunately, while the clocks obediently go back an hour at the end of British Summer Time, our bodies aren’t necessarily quite so accommodating.

The autumn clock change can temporarily disrupt our internal body clock, influencing when we feel sleepy, when we’re alert and how comfortably we settle into our usual routines. Less obviously, those changes can also affect the daily rhythms of our digestive system.

That connection between the clock change and gut health is particularly interesting given how many people already struggle with digestive discomfort.

Research commissioned by PrecisionBiotics found that 65% of people surveyed believed their digestive health affected their sleep. Another 14% reported that changes in routine, including clock changes, affected their digestion.

It raises an interesting question: if our sleep and digestion are so closely connected, what happens when the timetable governing both suddenly shifts?

Your Body Clock Isn’t Quite as Punctual as Your Alarm

Our circadian rhythm acts as the body’s internal timekeeper, helping regulate the natural cycle of sleeping and waking.

Light plays an important role in this process, which explains why changes in daylight exposure can influence how alert or tired we feel at different times.

Dr Nisa Aslam, a GP with a special interest in nutrition and an adviser to PrecisionBiotics, explains:

“Although the clocks only change by an hour, your body doesn’t necessarily instantly adjust. Firstly, your internal body clock, known as the circadian rhythm, helps regulate when you feel alert and when you feel sleepy and because it responds particularly to light, changes in your exposure to daylight can influence the sleep-wake cycle.

“Your gut has its own daily rhythms, with digestive activity and the gut microbiome – the collection of trillions of bacteria and microbes in your gut- are influenced by the body’s internal clock, as well as by when and what we eat. Changes to sleep and meal timing can therefore affect the usual pattern of digestive activity.”

It’s an important distinction. Changing the clocks doesn’t automatically mean we’ll sleep badly or develop digestive symptoms. But it can create a temporary mismatch between the time displayed on our watches and the rhythms our bodies have become accustomed to.

And those rhythms extend well beyond the bedroom.

Your Gut Has a Daily Routine Too

Most of us recognise that a late night can leave us feeling out of sorts the following morning. Fewer people necessarily consider what an unsettled routine might mean for digestion.

The gut microbiome, a complex community of microorganisms living within our digestive system, is influenced by several factors, including what we eat, when we eat and our internal biological rhythms.

Digestive activity also follows daily patterns.

When familiar sleeping or eating schedules change, those established patterns may change with them.

This doesn’t mean that putting the clocks back directly causes bloating, constipation or other digestive complaints. The relationship is more complicated, and individual responses will vary.

It does help explain why the timing of meals and sleep can be relevant to digestive comfort, particularly for people who already notice changes when their usual routine is interrupted.

Digestive Discomfort Is Hardly Unusual

The PrecisionBiotics‘ survey suggests digestive complaints are a familiar part of life for many respondents.

Among those questioned, 76% reported experiencing digestive discomfort.

Bloating was mentioned by 43%, while 42% reported diarrhoea and the same proportion reported constipation. Another 37% identified excess wind as a problem.

These figures are self-reported survey findings, rather than clinical diagnoses or established prevalence rates for the UK population. The survey details available do not establish how representative the results are.

Nevertheless, the responses offer a picture of how digestive discomfort can affect everyday experiences.

Almost a third of those surveyed, 32%, said their gut health influenced their eating habits or enjoyment of food.

For 27%, digestive difficulties affected their mood, while 22% said their physical activity was affected.

Those consequences will sound familiar to anyone who has found themselves reconsidering a meal, cancelling an activity or struggling to get comfortable because their digestion isn’t behaving as they’d like.

It also brings us back to sleep.

Why Sleep and Digestion Can Influence Each Other

Poor sleep and digestive discomfort can overlap in ways that aren’t always obvious.

Suzie Sawyer, a clinical nutritionist and adviser to PrecisionBiotics, explains that gaining an hour when the clocks go back doesn’t necessarily protect us from temporary changes to our sleep patterns.

A shift in routine can leave our established sleeping habits slightly out of step with our internal body clock.

The relationship also works in both directions. Disrupted sleep may influence appetite, energy levels and daily habits, while digestive discomfort can make getting comfortable at night more difficult.

In the PrecisionBiotics survey, 30% of respondents reported sleep problems or low daytime energy during the previous month.

Meanwhile, nearly two-thirds said their digestive health affected their sleep.

Those findings reflect people’s experiences rather than proving that one problem caused the other. Still, they underline why sleep and digestive wellbeing shouldn’t always be considered separately.

After all, an extra hour on the clock is only useful if you’re actually sleeping comfortably enough to enjoy it.

Can a Consistent Routine Help?

There is a practical lesson in the relationship between digestion, sleep and the body’s internal rhythms.

Because daylight, sleep timing and eating habits all influence our daily biological patterns, maintaining some consistency around those routines is a reasonable approach to the autumn clock change.

That could mean keeping familiar mealtimes and bedtimes as steady as circumstances allow, while paying attention to how changes in daylight affect sleepiness and alertness.

The intention isn’t to transform a one-hour clock adjustment into an elaborate health project. Most people have quite enough to organise without adding a complicated digestive timetable to the list.

It’s simply about recognising that our bodies respond to regular patterns, even when the clocks tell us that the schedule has changed.

Anyone experiencing persistent or troublesome digestive symptoms should seek appropriate medical advice rather than assuming the clock change is responsible.

What About Probiotics?

The relationship between the gut microbiome and wellbeing has also attracted interest in specific probiotic strains.

PrecisionBiotics offers supplements containing strains including Bifidobacterium longum 1714, which has been investigated in clinical research relating to stress, tiredness and sleep.

Its range also includes products containing Bifidobacterium longum 35624, alongside other probiotic formulations designed for different purposes.

However, research involving a particular bacterial strain doesn’t automatically establish that every product containing it will produce the same results.

Nor does the evidence presented establish that probiotic supplements can prevent digestive symptoms associated specifically with changing the clocks.

Probiotics may have a place in some approaches to gut health, but individual products and strains need to be considered on the strength of the evidence relevant to their intended use.

For somebody concerned about the immediate effects of a seasonal routine change, sleep and eating patterns remain an obvious place to focus attention.

A Small Change That Can Feel Surprisingly Noticeable

One finding from the PrecisionBiotics survey perhaps captures the connection between digestion and general wellbeing better than the individual symptom statistics.

Some 71% of respondents agreed that feeling settled digestively helped them feel calmer and more balanced overall.

It’s a subjective finding, but one that illustrates how closely digestive comfort can be associated with the way people experience their day.

The autumn clock change won’t affect everybody in the same way. Some will enjoy the extra hour in bed without giving it another thought. Others may notice their sleep or usual routine feels a little different.

Understanding the relationship between the body’s internal rhythms, meal timing and digestion offers a more measured way of approaching those changes.

The clocks can be adjusted in seconds. Our bodies may prefer to work to their own timetable.