It's time to spring forward: Daylight Saving Time starts at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. This is the one where we lose an hour, and it can have some negative health impacts.
The time change has been documented to have adverse health effects.
"Believe it or not, puts a fairly decent amount of stress on your body," said Dr. Frank Smart, chief of Cardiology at LSU Health New Orleans. "There's been good studies that show there's an increased risk of heart attacks and things like that."
Dr. Smart says too many people just accept losing an hour of sleep when we spring forward, and that lost hour can lead to more stress hormones in our blood -- and it can last for days!
"I think the consensus currently is about 48 hours to normalize back to a normal hormone level," he said.
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So is avoiding this as simple as going to bed an hour earlier?
"It probably is close to that simple, but it's also, you don't want to have too much alcohol, simply because that is going to effect your sleep properties," Dr. Smart advises.
And if you smoke, Dr. Smart says the best time to quit is always right now.
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