DAYLIGHT-SAVING SWITCH COULD MEAN GROGGY TIME.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

The alarm rings. The head aches. It's too early. Damn: The daylight-saving slumber rip-off has rolled around again.

For those who dread losing an hour of sleep during the ``spring forward'' Sunday morning time shift, take heart: You're not alone.

Setting clocks forward at 2 a.m. Sunday can not only disturb body rhythms through the benediction hour, sleep experts say, but jolt nerves and jar sleep patterns for days afterward.

``For most people, they'll be a little sleepy during daytime, maybe they'll fall asleep during church,'' said Dr. Dennis McGinty of the Sleep Disorder Center at Northridge Hospital Medical Center.

``It may last four to five days.''

Just ask the Rev. Doug Sachtleben at Faith Bible Church in Northridge. Despite being warned, some of his 120 churchgoers will slip into the pews late.

And Sachtleben, because of a somnolent congregation, might rewrite his sermon to rouse more owlish souls.

``I just might try to instill a little more passion,'' the pastor said of his daylight-saving discourse. ``It certainly will grab people's attention and sober them up - it's (on) the Crucifixion.''

As customs go, daylight savings is fairly new, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the nation's official timekeeper. First instituted in 1918, it was soon repealed and wasn't widely practiced until the Uniform Time Act of 1966.

Twenty-one years later, federal law set daylight-saving time for all states but Arizona, Hawaii and most of Indiana from the first Sunday in April until the last Sunday in October.

``This is about transitions,'' said Sheri Meyers Gantman, a Tarzana psychotherapist and host of the ``Straight from the Heart'' show on cable television.

Think expansion. Health. Vitality. Awakening. Most of all, she said, ``we're transitioning from darkness into light. What we get at the end of the day is more light to play in and be in.

``There's life after work.''

Great. But how do you put up with the daylight-saving zombie syndrome? McGinty recommends:

--Get up promptly at the same time so the body clock can adjust to its new schedule.

--Avoid staying out the night before to allow the body to get an extra hour's rest. Try melatonin, maybe a sleeping pill.

--Don't worry about it.

``The best thing is to be active,'' McGinty said. ``Sunlight itself is stimulating.''

Other sleep experts were more stoic in their prescriptions.

``What I recommend you do is absolutely nothing,'' said Dr. Ronald Popper of Thousand Oaks. ``Bite the bullet ... losing an hour of sleep isn't going to kill you, that's the bottom line.''

San Fernando Valley residents say they will grin and bear it.

``I just roll with the punches,'' said Win Dautzenberg of Northridge. ``It's the way the cookie crumbles. I just take it as it comes.''

Victor Kelly, 77, of West Hills welcomed a chance to change his clocks.

``Hooray,'' he said. ``Being an old retired codger, it just gives me something else to do, to bug the wife with. I'm in favor of it.''