This week sure is gray and rainy but believe it or not, spring is just around the corner. In fact, we are turning our clocks forward tonight. Daylight saving time officially begins at 2 a.m. on Sunday.

If you’re like me, I had a tough time remembering which way to turn the clock. Then I learned a mnemonic: Spring ahead and fall back. It’s always helped me. I like to think of a little rabbit, like the Easter bunny, leaping ahead in the warm sunshine of spring, and falling into a pile of leaves in the autumn like I did as a kid. Sure, it’s a little “rose-colored glasses,” but it makes me happy.

And although the name should imply it, again if you’re like me, then you’ve been confused which is daylight saving time and which is standard time. When are we trying to save daylight? Are evenings with sunlight standard also called nature’s time, as I heard it termed growing up? So I looked it up. I wanted a definition to set me straight once and for all.

Spring is daylight saving time, because we are saving more daylight by moving the clocks forward an hour. There you go; no more confusion.

Another interesting thing about daylight saving time is how some people really hate it. I always hear people complaining about it messing up their sleep.

I don’t mind it. I really love having more sunshine in the evening. I’m a night owl. No matter how much I try, I just am not a morning person, so more daylight in the evening suits me perfectly.

To me, getting more hours of daylight helps me get more things done. I love being able to do things outside after work, like my garden or going for a walk. You can’t add more hours to the day, so this is the next best thing.

Of course, I don’t have the sleep problems that other people experience. It’s not a favorite with sleep experts either.

An article on the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website weighed in on the topic. It stated that a survey by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine found that about 63% of Americans would like to eliminate daylight saving time. Yikes! The survey also found that 55% of the respondents experience tiredness due to the switch.

The article said that changing the clock can have adverse effects on health, such as mood disturbances. Sleep expert and Johns Hopkins professor in the Department of Health, Adam Spira said, “The scientific evidence points to acute increases in adverse health consequences from changing the clocks, including in heart attack and stroke.”

Similarly, in a different article, this one in the Coloradan magazine, Kenneth Wright, a sleep researcher at the University of Colorado, explained it this way. “When we get exposed to light at night, that sends a signal to our circadian clock that we should go to bed later and wake up later. Later sleep timing is associated with more substance use and physical and mental health problems, including obesity, depression and heart disease.”

Well fiddlesticks! That’s a real bummer to people like me who revel in the late day sunshine. Oh well, I’m not going to let it bother me.

Welcome spring!