NJ health expert says to do this before Daylight Saving Time this weekend

🕑 Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday at 2 a.m.

🕑 Turn the clocks ahead one hour

🕑 Is there any effort to eliminate the change?

It's the time of the year that many dread or look forward to, depending on your point of view: a return to Daylight Saving Time.

Clocks will be turned ahead one hour Sunday at 2 a.m.  Some dread the initial loss of an hour's sleep; others look forward to more sunlight in the evening. How you feel about the time change depends on your circadian rhythm, also known as your biochemical clock, which cycles every 24 hours.

Everyone's clock is set by using a time zone. Even a small change like "springing forward" can have an impact on how people function, according to Helmut Zarbl, Director of the Environmental and Occupational Health Science Institute at Rutgers University.

"People make more mistakes at work, including medical doctors and police and so on. There's also more accidents because people are a little bit disoriented because their clock is has to be reset. And as I said, some people are much more sensitive. About 10% or 15% of population is extremely sensitive, so the one-hour time change can have a significant effect on people, and we do it twice a year. It affects a lot of aspects of our lives for about a week.

Zarbl said the time to prepare your body for the time change is by getting up 10 minutes earlier each day for a week so by the time the change happens your body clock is already adjusted, Zarbl said. Once the time change happens, there's one thing you can try.

"If you're having trouble getting to sleep, you can block out blue light. You can wear glasses that block blue light," Zarbl said.

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Make a change?

A Gallup poll taken in January shows 54% of those polled would like to do stick with Standard Time year round while 40% would like to keep Daylight Saving Time. 6% don't know.  Zarbl doesn't really have a preference as long we all follow the same clock year round.

"It's really a matter of personal preference. So it's not surprising that some prefer one and some prefer the other," Zarbl said.

President Donald Trump did not offer much hope to those who don't like the bi-annual change during an Oval Office briefing on Thursday, calling it a "50/50 issue."

"I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark," Trump said. "It’s something I can do … but a lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way. It's very even."

Congress has the final say over any change. U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., proposed legislation in January to "lock the clock" that would make Daylight Saving Time permanent.

“I hear from Americans constantly that they are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year – it’s an unnecessary, decades-old practice that’s more of an annoyance to families than benefit to them," Scott said in a statement.

New Jersey state Sen. Shirley Turner, D-Mercer, re-introduced a bill, S-4084, she has proposed every legislative session to keep permanent Standard Time. In her legislation, she calls the change "disruptive to commerce" and said that staying on Standard Time would decreases risks of cardiological issues including heart attack, stroke, and atrial fibrillation.

It would also help prevent "adverse effects on mental health, including increased rates of mood disorders and suicide," according to the bill.

The bill was referred to the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee

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