Preparing For Daylight Savings Time

I've always been one who needs a sleep schedule.  Getting an extra hour of sleep when switching from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time is no problem, but losing that hour of sleep can really mess me up.  I'd be the happiest person around if we would just stay on one time; I don't care what time zone we pick, just pick one and stick with it.

Losing an hour of sleep affects me for several days, so for the last several years I've tried to mitigate the effects of that time change.  Starting about a week before, I set my alarm clock 10 minutes earlier each day.  I don't get up any earlier, and I may just turn off the alarm and continue resting, but I'm slowly trying to acclimate to the alarm going off an hour earlier than my circadian rhythms are used to--and it turns out this might not be a bad idea:

For folks who are adjusting their clocks, the body isn’t going to like getting up a whole hour earlier, so it’s best if you and your kids start adapting by going to bed and waking up 15 to 20 minutes earlier each day for four or more days before the change, experts say.

“Planning for the change can be key to lessening the impact of this change on your body’s circadian rhythms,” said sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, an associate professor of clinical medicine at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.

I said pretty much the same thing three years ago.