Daylight Saving Time (DST) officially begins this weekend — always on the second Sunday in March and ending on the first Sunday in November. Most of us learned the phrase, “spring forward, fall back” to remind us which way to adjust the clocks. Sunday at 2:00 a.m. we move clocks forward 1 hour. Changing watches and clocks is a small chore. Changing our internal clocks is trickier.

A cluster of brain cells located in the hypothalamus acts as the timekeeper for our bodies. The neural ticker, also called our circadian rhythm tells our bodies when to eat, sleep, wake up, and perform many other functions over the course of a day. To keep our physiology in sync with local time, our internal clocks rely on cues from sunlight — particularly early morning light.

Sunrise directs our bodies to release wake up hormones, which boost metabolism, blood pressure, and body temperature.

Sunset tells our bodies it's time to wind down, sleep, and heal.

Because of DST this week our heads and bodies are in for a spin. As we adjust to shifting the clocks forward, let’s be creative. We can avoid a shock to our systems if we adjust bedtime and wake up time over several days to get our normal hours of sleep each night. We can make the time change for breakfast, lunch, and dinner gradual. Here are two statistics to motivate us:

•       Heart attacks increase 24 percent on the Monday following the "spring forward" switch to Daylight Saving Time, compared with the daily number for the weeks surrounding the start of DST.

•       Pets and livestock suffer with the time change. Their body clocks are disrupted when we feed them an hour later, or milk them later than usual.

DST is an attempt to use daylight to maximum advantage, but it’s controversial. There’s a continuous debate about the pros and cons of the Uniform Time Act, and only Congress has the power to change it.

As we spring forward, we add one hour of natural daylight to our afternoon schedule. Why not embrace the change and celebrate the gift of light?

Sources: timeanddate.com, www.livescience.com, CSIRO Livestock Industries.