Don't Lose Sleep Over Daylight Savings Time

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The key to adjusting to DST is exposure to sunlight, Loredo said. "We can actually change our internal clock backward or forward depending on the exposure to light," he said. "The change isn't immediate, it takes some time," he added.

Loredo agreed that gradually adjusting your sleep schedule will help adjust your internal clock.

"But the best way to advance your clock is being exposed to sunlight in the morning. Bright sunlight, not inside but outdoors without sunglasses, for an hour to two hours a day will advance your internal clock by an hour," Loredo said.

In addition, a small dose of melatonin can help, Loredo said. "To advance your internal clock faster or further, you can take melatonin (the lowest dose possible, whatever you get in the store -- cut it in half) at five or six o'clock p.m. It's not a sleeping pill, it helps advance the clock."

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has these tips to help people cope with the upcoming time change:

• Begin to re-jig your sleeping routine a few days before the time change by hitting the sack an hour earlier.
• Re-adjust your mealtime schedule by eating dinner an hour earlier.
• Be careful when operating machinery or driving on the day of the time change.
• Avoid naps, especially close to bedtime.
• Avoid turning to caffeine to wake you up in the morning and alcohol at night to help you sleep.
• Maintain a lighter schedule on the Monday after the time change. Try and minimize driving and avoid strenuous activities.
• Eat properly, drink lots of water and remain physically active.

Since Daylight Savings Time is starting three weeks earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is concerned that this earlier change could have unpredictable effects on medical devices and equipment, hospital computer networks, and information technology systems.

According to the FDA, medical equipment that uses, creates or records time information about a patient's diagnosis or treatment and hasn't been updated by the manufacturer may not work properly when DST starts Sunday.