Time Springs Forward in Annual Rite : Daylight Saving Time Means an Extra Hour of Sunlight for Many, but One of Four People’s Sleep Patterns Can Be Disrupted

A simple spring ritual to most people, Daylight Saving Time for watch store manager Gary Elias is a serious headache.

While most of us take a few moments to adjust bedside alarm clocks and wristwatches, Elias and his six-member crew spend two days and a lot of overtime resetting 3,000 timepieces in their South Coast Plaza watch store.

“This is not an easy task to get done. We spend a lot of time and effort so every watch is accurate,” said Elias, manager at Tourneau, where watches range from a $40 Swatch to a $120,000 Jump Hour Repeater from Switzerland.

After twisting, pulling and adjusting the tiny watch stems, Elias said, he and his salesmen often suffer chipped finger nails, numb fingertips and tired eyes.

But for most Orange County residents, the time change is welcome for the additional hour of sunlight it brings.

“I absolutely love it because I like to be outside, and there’s more light to do things when I get home,” said Kimberly Jenson, a court clerk in Santa Ana who works 9 to 5. “Soon, I’ll be able to go bike riding or take walks or work in my garden.”

For Steve Medina, 23, a customer service representative at a Costa Mesa bank, the time change recharges him.

“I have more energy when I get home. When it gets dark early, all I wanna do is go inside and watch TV,” Medina said. With more light, he said, “I don’t feel like my job has eaten up my entire day.”

The U.S. first adopted Daylight Saving Time in 1918 as a way to save energy. Congress repealed the law a year later, but many cities continued to use it. Then during World War II, the United States officially observed daylight time nationwide to conserve energy for the war effort.

In 1967, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, making daylight saving time official in most states. Several states such as Hawaii, Arizona and parts of Indiana were exempt because they are split by time zones.

During the energy crisis in the early 1970s, Congress passed a bill which kept most of the nation on year-round Daylight Saving Time for two years.

But while some people enjoy the added daylight, others find it troublesome, particularly when it comes to sleeping.

“One out of four people will have a significant sleep adjustment,” said Dr. Paul Selecky, medical director of the Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian Sleep Disorder Center. Older people and insomniacs, he said, tend to have the most trouble.

It starts, he said, when a person is unable to fall asleep because he is going to bed an hour earlier than before the time change.

“The problem is you get poor quality of sleep and insufficient sleep initially,” Selecky said. “Come morning, your body is used to still sleeping another hour and the alarm clock goes off.”

It is easier to adjust to dropping back to standard time in the fall, Selecky said, because it is rarely difficult to fall asleep when you stay up an hour later than normal.

As a result of sleep lost in the time change, he said, people may feel lethargic and irritable and experience difficulty concentrating during the day. “But that should disappear as your body adjusts to the new schedule,” he added.

Another problem for many will be forgetting to reset clocks.

According to an American Airlines spokeswoman, travelers every year arrive at the airport an hour late, startled to find that their flights left.

“We do what we can to accommodate these people,” said Leeann Paganini, a reservations manager from American Airlines. “But we basically rely on people to be responsible adults and change their alarm clocks.”