UNITED STATES—One would like to think that getting that extra hour of sleep was a good thing, but if I have to think about it, all is not as it seems. Why? I used to be that person that would do cartwheels at the thought of gaining an extra hour of sleep. I mean, think about it: there are only 24 hours in a day, any opportunity you can get an extra hour of sleep or just free time to do whatever is great.

What so many Americans forget is that gaining that extra hour forces a ripple in your circadian rhythm. We all have a time clock, and it might seem silly, but your body is programmed to awake and sleep at certain times during the day. There are things you can attempt to do to change it, but once your body has a system in place it is very difficult to change that.

For example, I went to sleep quite early Saturday after being out and about for most of the day. It seemed later than what I thought and perhaps that was a direct result of me knowing I was getting that extra hour. I went to sleep and woke up at 6ish in the morning, thinking it was much later. In actuality it was quite early and my body never adjusted for the entire day. I felt out of it, groggy and just lacking energy. I wanted to sleep, sleep and sleep more.

I don’t know what it is about springing forward or falling back, that so many Americans have issues with. There are indeed pros and cons to both. When you fallback you gain an hour, when you spring forward you lose an hour, it gets brighter earlier, darker sooner, it stay light later, should I keep talking? I hate that it gets darker earlier in the day during this time of year. Why?

This is the time of year that more people are out and about and out much later than normal. I mean we have Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas, New Year’s, all festive holidays where people are out and about, I mean the sun going down at 5’oclock does not help the situation. It also sucks for those who get off work late at night or kids who get out of school later in the day and have to walk home.

I hate to say this, but you have criminals just waiting to pounce during the nighttime hours. It sometimes makes me wish a vast majority of the United States was like Alaska where we they have 24 hours of sunlight for 6 months. It might be hard to sleep, but if you’re tired, you’re going to fall asleep no matter what you do. There have been countless arguments of rather Daylight Savings Time should be cut over the years, and my argument is we’ve had it this long so why change it now.

There is no point in not making the adjustment because if we didn’t it would not get bright until after 8 a.m. and then it’s still getting dark by 6 p.m. So are we really getting any changes to the time clock? Not really, so best advice I can give is not to place yourself into a situation where you losing more sleep than what you’re gaining. The main purpose is to adjust the time clock on sunrise and sunset, getting an additional hour of sleep is a bonus perk America, remember that.