Daylight saving time: How to prepare your sleep schedule

Preparing your sleep schedule for daylight saving time

Standard time is coming to an end this weekend. Starting Monday, we spring forward into daylight saving time.

SEATTLE - On Sunday morning, Daylight Saving Time will go into effect and we will be "springing" forward an hour in Washington state.

We'll gain more daylight but lose an extra hour of sleep.

What does time change do to our body?

FOX 13 Seattle spoke with a professor of neurology from the University of Washington about how to adjust to the time change and how to prepare our sleep schedule.

"You know, adults need seven or more hours asleep to support optimal health," said Dr. Nate Watson. "So you want to make sure that your sleep saturated you want to have good sleep hygiene, which means consistent bedtimes and wait times are regular bedtime teen no caffeine after 2pm tried to get exercise during the day. Those things can can all help."

Watson recommended going back to basics when adjusting.

Is switching the clock back good for your health?

Watson says standard time is healthier on the human body.

"There are three clocks that we have: We have a body clock, we have a sun clock and we have a social clock. Our health is optimized when our body clock is aligned with the sun clock, and that's most aligned when we're on standard time," said Watson.

Few people get excited about losing an hour of sleep when the country "springs forward" in March.

"When we go to daylight saving time, it's like dosing the entire population with an hour of permanent jet lag, and we know this has untoward consequences for health," said Watson, "when we spring forward — increased heart attacks, strokes, mental health gets impaired, accidents."