We spring forward this weekend

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – It’s time for a change — a time change, that is. The clocks go forward one hour at 2 a.m. this Sunday as we spring forward for Daylight Saving Time. And that means more sunlight after work but it could also put a lot of stress on your body.

Medical Director of the Centre for Sleep and Human Performance Dr. Charles Samuels says the time change can really mess up our sleep patterns even more than the fall change. “One of the biggest problems in North America, when we look at issues around sleep, is just not getting enough sleep overall. So, when we come to the spring time change, we magnify that by losing the hour.”

He suggests combating the change by getting some extra sleep tonight. “Really, you should just focus on not staying up late on the weekend and getting the amount of sleep that you need the weekend of the time change.”

He says most of us are already sleep-deprived, getting between five and 10 hours of sleep less than we should each week. “When you add that hour on and you think of it being over the weekend and people tend to stay up later on the weekend rather than get their sleep, it can actually end up being more than one hour that we add to the sleep debt pile.”

And by Monday it can be a real struggle. “People should pay attention this weekend. Make sure they are well rested going into the weekend and they should adjust for nicely by Wednesday.”

ICBC says often in the first week after a time change, fatigue can often be a factor in crashes.

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