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How to make the time change a little less painful this weekend

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It’s that dreaded time of year. Time to “spring” forward and lose an hour of sleep.

The transition to daylight saving time can be brutal, but here are three suggestions to make it less jarring:

1.) Stick to your schedule

The trick to navigating the time change in the spring and fall is to resume your normal sleep schedule as quickly as possible, says Dr. Alon Y. Avidan, director of the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center. That means waking up at the time you normally would on a Sunday, and maybe even a little earlier, even though it means — yawn — less sleep because of the time change. The reasoning: You want to be so tired Sunday night that you easily fall asleep at your normal bedtime, allowing you to get back on schedule as soon as possible.

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2) Go easy on the caffeine

Resist the temptation to overdo the java so you can power through the loss of one hour’s sleep. That could make it harder for you to fall asleep Sunday night. And your goal is to immediately get back to your sleeping-and-waking routine.

3.) Change all the clocks

Our cellphones and other devices automatically reflect the time change, which makes it easy to forget that you need to manually do the same for other clocks. It’s way too easy to forget to change one key clock — such as the one on the microwave that you eyeball to make sure you’re heading out the door in time — and then find yourself completely behind. (Yes, spoken from experience!)

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rene.lynch@latimes.com

@renelynch

Health@latimes.com

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