This is just a friendly reminder to "spring forward" on Saturday night for Daylight Savings Time. At 2am (Sunday, technically), the clocks change and we'll all lose an hour of the day...and hopefully not an hour of sleep. Night owls, like myself, should be ready for this one.

Two Tough Changes

As you may have noticed when you travel to another time zone, a time shift can make you more restless at night and leave you feeling less alert during the day.  I guess you could say that everyone's traveling to a new time zone this weekend (well, everyone except Arizona).

But a time shift is not all Daylight Savings Time brings...It also changes the time of day that you are exposed to natural light, one of the most important factors that affects your sleep and circadian rhythm.

According to Dr. Ron Kramer and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the negative effects of this double-whammy "can last as long as one to two weeks in some people".

Your Body Clock

Your body uses light to set the timing of your internal body clock in the morning, when it's time to become more alert, and at night, when it's time to wind down; Daylight Savings Time affects both.

• At Night. The light you're exposed to later into the evening tells your body that it's not time for bed yet. This can make it harder to fall asleep at night.
• In The Morning. With the loss of an hour, it'll be a little darker when you wake up. The reduction in exposure to a.m. light makes the adjustment more difficult than a trip to another time zone.

Night owls beware. In the past, I wrote a post about the challenges of being a Night Owl in an Early Bird World. Well, the Spring variety of Daylight Savings Time adds to that challenge, mostly because it is difficult for night owls to fall asleep when they go to bed early. The end result is that night owls can end up getting less sleep during this transition...

What You Can Do About It

Here are some tips you can use to help with the Daylight Savings double-whammy:

1. Make the change to the new schedule 15 minutes at a time
2. Use your morning alarm time as your anchor (which you can shift 15 minutes at a time) and go to be when you're sleepy the next night
3. Take precautions - be aware of how groggy you are and avoid driving drowsy. Also watch out for other drowsy drivers when you're on the road next week.

There is one great thing about Daylight Savings Time, though - it means that Spring is on its way...

Derek (ZQ: 83) is our social media superstar; chances are you chatted with him on Facebook or read one of his tweets. He is one of the leaders of Zeology and an all-around friendly guy who loves to talk sleep.