CHECKUP : NEWS, TIPS AND TRENDS SPRING AHEAD - AND TEND TO YOUR INCREASED SLEEP NEEDS.

On Sunday, most Americans turned ahead their clocks - and lost an hour of sleep. While it may seem inconsequential, an hour of sleep loss can have the same effect as a three-hour jet lag, according to the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C.

Studies have found that losing an hour of sleep can increase fatigue and may even contribute to more traffic accidents. Last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, psychologist Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia reported that traffic accidents increased 7 percent the day after daylight-saving time began. ``We're all sleep-deprived anyway, so that extra loss you experience is enough to lead to an accident,'' Coren says.

If you're not taking today off, what can you do to make up for lost sleep?

``Treat yourself like you have jet lag,'' recommends Robert Hicks, a psychologist at San Jose State University. People should eat dinner an hour earlier and go to bed an hour earlier as well, he says.

Coren also advises that people be extra careful when driving or operating machinery. And people should be aware that sleep deprivation can make them more susceptible to the effects of alcohol, he says.

One deep breath: Inhaled steroids are far more effective than other drugs in preventing the need for hospitalization, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reports. For six years, the government has recommended steroid inhalants for the treatment of asthma. But doctors have been slow to prescribe them, perhaps because of the side effects associated with the pill form of the medication.

Pop some iron: Millions of infants, young girls and women in the United States are iron deficient or anemic, a new report found. Researchers estimated that 700,000 toddlers and 7.8 million women have iron deficiency (a reduced amount of iron in the blood). Of them, nearly 240,000 toddlers and 3.3 million women have iron-deficiency anemia - a lack of sufficient iron in the blood as well as a low level of the oxygen-carrying compound hemoglobin. The researchers stressed the importance of these groups consuming foods rich in iron, such as lean meats, whole or enriched grains and green vegetables.

Nowhere to hide: So, you think you have it made in the shade. Sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but you're taking cancer-causing ultraviolet-B (UVB) light too lightly. Being in the shade won't protect you from it, because unlike visible light, UVB doesn't shine down in a straight line from the sun, Purdue University researchers report in the International Journal of Biometeorology. ``When people in the shade estimate UVB exposure based on an eyeball assessment,'' Purdue agronomist Richard Grant says, ``they're getting about twice as much UVB as they think.''

Cancer-progressing gene discovered: Two separate research teams have identified a gene that plays a role in the progression of the most lethal form of brain cancer and possibly other malignancies. A defective form of the gene, located on chromosome 10, is believed to increase the severity of glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and most fatal type of primary brain cancer, or cancer that originates in the brain.