ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Folks will be losing one hour of sleep this Saturday at the cost of gaining an extra hour of evening daylight. 

But, doctors warn the change can shake up your sleep schedule beyond the first night. They say it can affect your physical and mental health. 

In years past, legislators have debated whether or not the state should continue with daylight saving. Those bills never passed, and it was not a topic at the Roundhouse this year.

Sarita Warrick, a family physician with Optum, says the effects of daylight saving are usually temporary, and it takes the body a couple of days to reset.

It’s normal to feel drowsy during the day, mentally foggy and have disruptions in your sleep, but she warns if the effects last longer than a week, get that checked out.

“In general healthy adults should get about seven hours but folks that already struggle with sleep-wake cycles will have trouble. In children especially, since they don’t tend to look at clocks all the time, when it comes to their nap and sleeping schedules,” said Warrick. 

Warrick says you can get ahead of the drowsiness ahead of time by setting your clocks forward.

She says tricking your mind ahead of time can be beneficial. But if the time to go to bed comes, Warrick says meditation and deep breathing can help get you in a good sleep zone.

Try to avoid using your phone two hours before your bedtime too.

“Sometimes the light from the screens can mess with our rhythms. And it’s almost like artificial daylight which tells our body to wake up. And so two hours before bedtime we’re supposed to all stop. Even the week after, and the rest of the year, not using our screens,” said Warrick. 

Warrick also says taking a quick 15 to 20-minute cat nap can help if it’s early in the day.

She says if you require a nap, or you don’t feel refreshed when you wake up, those could be signs of a sleep disorder which can lead to more harmful effects.