Sleep expert: Standard time is better for health

As Washington state and much of the rest of the United States prepare to "fall back" on Sunday morning to mark the end of daylight saving time, UW Medicine's Dr. Nathaniel Watson says we’re switching the clocks back to a healthier timeframe.

“There are three clocks that we have: We have a body clock, we have a sun clock and we have a social clock. Our health is optimized when our body clock is aligned with the sun clock, and that's most aligned when we're on standard time,” said Watson, a professor of neurology and the co-director of the UW Medicine Sleep Center. 

“When we go to daylight saving time, it's like dosing the entire population with an hour of permanent jet lag,”he said.

Watson encourages everyone to take full advantage of the return to standard time by catching up on sleep Sunday.

In broadcast-ready soundbites, Watson describes the health implications of time changes.