Expert talks daylight saving time, how you can prepare now

Experts say there are some things you can do to minimize the effects of the sleep loss. 

LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ)- Its almost daylight saving time, which means our clocks move forward one hour Sunday at 2 a.m., meaning we’ll lose an hour of sleep.
On the flip side, we’ll get longer days and shorter nights.

Experts say there are some things you can do to minimize the effects of the sleep loss.

Dr. Bruce O’Hara is a professor of biology at the University of Kentucky who focuses on sleep practices.

He says daylight saving time can affect your circadian rhythm, which is the natural internal process that regulates your sleep-wake cycle.

“One hour is obviously a pretty small difference, but you’re doing it to 300-million people,right?” Dr. O’Hara said. “So over that many people definitely adds up. Even if your somebody that does well on 7-hours of sleep, sometimes just going to six hours, you don’t do as well.”

This means it can throw off your hormones when its time to be awake or be asleep. O’Hara says the time change can cause changes to your body.

“We know that just one hour of sleep loss can affect people’s dietary choices, more likely to have junk food and donuts and things that they wouldn’t otherwise,” O’Hara said. “Just a modest reduction of sleep can affect people’s feelings, their behavior, their health, their driving skills. That’s why there seems to be a little spike in accidents.”

He says there are a few things you can do to help in the transition. For example, you can adjust your sleep time so you’re going to bed at a “normal time,” and limit screen time at night.

“Don’t blast yourself with light at night. So if you do use the computer or the phone, a lot of apps have the shift to more wavelength light, more red light. The blue light, the shorter wavelength visible light, you know 400 nanometers or so, that we know impacts our circadian system more strongly and wakes us up in the evening,” O’Hara said.

Since it can take a couple of days to adjust, he says say its important to prepare now to limit the grogginess later.