People will be losing an hour of sleep this Sunday when the clocks spring ahead one hour for the start of daylight savings time.

Portage Clinic family physician Dr. David Kinnear says losing the one hour of sleep isn't necessarily unhealthy but can cause people to become cranky. He describes one strategy to reduce the effects of the one hour spring forward.

"Look ahead to when we know that daylight savings time is coming, maybe go to bed a little bit earlier for a few days prior to and try to make yourself get up a little bit earlier. Maybe not a whole hour earlier but maybe 15 or 20 minutes earlier. Sometimes that's a more gentle way to train your body, so to speak, to get used to this new change."

Kinnear notes some other ways to improve sleep quality on a day to day basis.

"Make sure one has a regular schedule as much as possible; going to bed at the same time every day and trying to get up at the same time every day. That trains our bodies to have a more regular cycle and the more regularity one can have the more efficient our sleep will be, typically. Making sure that we have a healthy lifestyle in a general sense also helps maintain our sleep, for example getting regular exercise. We normally recommend five times per week having moderate physical activity for about 20 or 30 minutes. That can really instill a more regular sleep schedule but it's also healthy for us in a general way."

He adds avoiding stimulating food and beverages, such as coffee or tea, after the late afternoon can also improve sleep quality.