Fall back! Daylight Saving Time is ending

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Daylight Saving Time is ending!  We return to Pacific Standard Time at 2 a.m. Sunday.

Most smartphones and computers make the adjustment automatically but older clocks and watches will need to be adjusted.  In the fall, the clocks “fall back” one hour.  That means we get an extra hour of sleep tonight.

Denise Brauln with Nanaimo Sleep Clinic says the return to PST provides the sleep-deprived among us with a great opportunity to adjust our biological clocks.  People typically need about seven hours of sleep per night but many get fewer than six.

But it takes work if you want to get the full benefit from that extra hour of sleep.  “You want to give yourself at least an hour prior to bedtime to just relax, let go of the day, get yourself in the mood for sleep,” she says.

Her advice is to avoid watching TV and using gadgets in the hour before bed.  Instead, read a book and dim the lights, setting the mood for sleep.

It’s advice that many people traditionally have not followed.

“There’s incredibly a 10% increase in the number of crashes during the late afternoon commute in the two weeks following the end of Daylight Saving Time,” says personal injury lawyer Adam Little.  “It seems that about a third of people overcompensate for the extra hour of sleep we get this weekend by staying up later.”

According to an ICBC survey, there’s a ten percent increase in the average number of collisions during the afternoon commute in the two weeks following the time change, compared to the two weeks prior.

The survey finds 30 percent of drivers stay up later with the time change thereby losing any potential benefit and 19 percent actually feel less alert behind the wheel.

Little calls it “a bit of a perfect storm” for drivers and pedestrians, who risk their lives on the road at this time of the year.

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