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I am so happy that this weekend is Daylight Saving Time. I know not everyone is as happy as I am. We lose an hour of sleep, I get that. What I love is when I get off work it will still be light outside and I won’t be nodding off at 8:00 PM because it’s so dark. We say spring forward, anything with the word spring has to be good! So on Sunday morning at 2:00 AM we change our clock ahead 1 hour making it 3:00 AM. Don’t forget!

Here are a couple fun facts:

Daylight Savings Time started in 1918 during World War I as a way to conserve energy.

Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that don’t observe DST.

There are things you can do to help survive the transition.

o    15 more minutes According to new national sleep survey from Sleep Number, over half (54 percent) of the respondents don’t feel they are getting enough sleep to be at their best. And when we lose an hour of sleep due to DST beginning, that sleep loss is even more evident. To make the time adjustment easier, don’t boil the ocean; start going to bed 15 minutes earlier than the night before… do this for 3-4 days.

o     Live in the future. On Saturday, live your life as if it’s already an hour ahead. For example, drink your last cup of coffee at 11 am (because that is really noon). Since caffeine has an approximate half-life of 6 hours, you don’t want to consumer caffeine after noon as it may impede your sleep.

o     Put down the screens. Survey results indicate that people who use devices in bed are more likely to feel they don’t get enough sleep (51 percent). Always make a screen-free zone about an hour before bedtime, which gives the eyes and mind time to relax before getting shut-eye (and allows the sleep hormone melatonin to trigger sleepiness). People in the Western region of the U.S. are the biggest tech-in-bed offenders, with 66 percent of respondents bringing devices to bed.

o    Monitor sleep to improve it. Fifty-eight percent of people wish they knew more about how to improve the quality of their sleep, yet only 16 percent actually monitor their sleep (versus 41 percent who track exercise and 43 percent who track diet). And, women are more likely to focus on improving their sleep compared to men. Sleep Number’s SleepIQ technology offers a simple solution to those who want to know better sleep.

I also use DST to remind my husband to change the batteries in all the smoke detectors in our house.

How does Daylight Saving Time affect you?