If you forget a pill or take it earlier or later than usual, it could become less effective.
What Is Daylight Saving Time?
During daylight saving time, you move your clocks forward during the spring/summer months by one hour.
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This allows daylight to last an hour longer when people are usually awake.
The terms “spring forward” and “fall back” are used to talk about these changes.
In the spring, the clocks “spring forward” from 1:59 a.m. to 3 a.m. Daylight saving time was not formally adopted in the U.S. until 1918.
President Wilson ended the bill but allowed each state to decide whether to keep observing daylight saving time.
States could also decide when it started and ended, which created a lot of confusion.
To make one pattern across the country, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
It was passed into law on April 13, 1966.
The act established a uniform period to observe daylight saving time.
However, states could be exempt from the observation by passing a state law.
Does Everyone Change the Clocks?
Depending on where you live, you might not change the clocks twice a year.
What will that mean for timing your birth control?
You have a two-to-three-hour window for taking your birth control pill without risking it being less effective.
If you take it an hour earlier or an hour later than usual, it should still provide protection.
Let’s say that you usually take your pill at 10 p.m.
When daylight saving time starts, the clock moves ahead one hour overnight.
You don’t need to change the time you take your pill to match the new time.
The easiest way to adjust might be to just take your pill one hour earlier than you usually do.
Just go back to your regular time when you start a new pack.
Taking your pill an hour earlier or later generally won’t be a problem.
Summary
Birth control pills are most effective when taken at about the same time every day.
During daylight saving time, your clock changes an hour.
When this happens, you’re essentially taking your pill earlier or later.
Experts recommend that you should take your pill within a two-to-three-hour window every day.
The pill should still work fine if you take it an hour earlier or later than usual.
As long as you’re still taking your pill within an hour of when you normally do.
Your body metabolizes the hormones in the pill each day.
This is especially true for progestin-only pills.
If you take those pills more than 24 hours apart, you may lower the effectiveness of the pill.
The level of hormones in the body drops if a birth control pill is taken too late.
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