Don't Forget to Set Your Clock Back

Don't forget to set your clocks back by one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 4 for Daylight Savings Time and enjoy the extra hour of sleep you'll gain from the change.

Government officials are urging residents to use the time adjustment to change their smoke detector and emergency flashlight batteries, and to update their emergency supplies.

According to TimeAndDate.com, Daylight Savings Time (DST) is a way of getting more light out of the day by advancing clocks by one hour during the summer. "During DST, the sun appears to rise one hour later in the morning, when people are usually asleep anyway, and sets one hour later in the evening, seeming to stretch the day longer."

The National Sleep Foundation offers some tips to help you adjust to this weekend's time change:

• Maintain your regular bedtime Saturday night, when clocks move back, and awaken at your regular time on Sunday morning. This can give you an “extra” hour of sleep the next morning and help reduce your sleep debt;
• Block out light and keep your sleeping area dark. Standard time causes the sun to rise about an hour earlier. This can impact sleep, especially for people accustomed to awakening before or around sunrise. The light itself can disturb sleep, so it is always best to sleep in a darkened room;
• Increase the light when you wake up. Light has an alerting affect that may help you wake up. It will also help adjust your biological clock to the “new” sleep schedule;
• Difficulty adjusting to the time change? Staying awake at night or sleeping until your desired wake-up time may be helped by gradually moving bedtime and awakening later by 15 minutes every one to two days.