OTTAWA -- A psychology professor at the University of Ottawa warns it will take a week or two for your body to adjust to daylight saving time.
Dr. Joseph De Koninck also recommends Ontario and Canada make standard time permanent to avoid the disruption to our biological clock and sleep.
Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday, and clocks move ahead one hour.
"The time change to daylight saving in the spring is much more problematic than in the fall when we come back to standard time … where we actually gain an hour of sleep," said Dr. De Koninck during an interview on Newstalk 580 CFRA Saturday morning with Matt Harris.
"Most of us tend to be sleep deprived because of modern society and action in the evening with phones and TV and so on. An additional loss of an hour is more significant, so it does take a while. Some people adapt quickly, but in general it does affect you for a week or two."
Daylight saving time means it will stay lighter later in the evening. The sun will set in Ottawa at 7:08 p.m. Sunday.
De Koninck tells CFRA that recent research shows that while we lose an hour this weekend, we will stay up later through the summer.
"Throughout the summer because light now gets later and later, it does tend to reduce what is called now by researchers 'social jet leg', which means that we tend to go to bed later because we have more activity because of the light in the evening," said De Koninck.
"It's actually quite extreme in June, the beginning of the real summer and holidays. The sun sets like in Ottawa at 9, but we still have light until almost 10-10:30, so that has an affect," De Koninck said.
"In general, people tend in the summer, as a result of this, to sleep even less – an average of about half an hour less than normal. Fortunately, when we get to the fall, we come back to sort of solar time and it doesn't have that much long-term affect."
In November, the Ontario government passed legislation that would end the bi-annual time change, making daylight saving time permanent. The change would only happen in Quebec and New York State agree.
De Koninck says sleep researchers recommend that if we abolish the time change, standard time should be maintained.
"In Ottawa on December 21, where the window of the light during the day is reduced to about 8 hours, the sun rises at a quarter to eight. What will happen if we have daylight saving? It will be rising at a quarter to nine, so people will be going to work in the dark," said De Koninck.
"For health issues, the time change in the fall is not as drastic. It is always messing up our biological clock, but it's in the spring that is the big issue."
Experts have said people will experience a shock to their body's internal clock when the time changes. Research shows that the disruption to the internal clock can cause increased rates of heart attacks, stroke, weight gain, anxiety and contribute to vehicle accidents.
The University of Ottawa professor says to prepare your body for the arrival of daylight saving time, you need to start a few days in advance by waking up 15 minutes earlier each day to expose your body to daylight earlier.
While De Koninck recommends Ontario abolish daylight saving time and maintain standard time year around, he has a suggestion if we continue with the bi-annual time changes.
"I have been recommending that if we do keep this exercise, we start on Friday night so that we have more time before Monday for those who go to work."
With files from CTV News Toronto multi-platform writer Sean Davidson
