Tired students will be trudging to their 8 a.m. classes next week as they adjust to daylight-saving time, which begins Sunday morning at 2 a.m. But although they may be tired and grumpy for a few days, an extra hour of sunshine may cheer them up in the long run.

"Light has a very important effect on the well-being of humans," said Frederick M. Brown, associate professor of psychology. "On sunny days people are more active and feel better than on dreary days."

But the switch into daylight-saving time can be rough for some students because they tend to stay up late and actually wake up an hour earlier in the morning.

This is true for some students like Erica Charney (freshman-international business), who looks forward to an extra hour of sunshine -- although it means she will lose an hour of sleep.

"It makes me more awake. When it gets dark earlier, I just want to go to bed early," she said.

Lack of light and shorter days contribute to seasonal affective disorder syndrome, causing depression in the fall and winter, Brown said. This is caused by melatonin, a hormone whose concentration changes with light stimulation. Light suppresses the melatonin concentration, therefore less light causes depression in some people.

"When spring comes, these people feel better," he said. "Even people who don't have it feel better."

People are naturally social and want to stay up late, but this can be a problem when bodies are adjusting to daylight-saving time, Brown said.

"That extra hour in the morning causes people not to sleep as long, so they become sleep deprived," Brown said. "It's a lot easier to stay up later than to get up earlier."

This lack of sleep usually results in a bunch of grouchy people walking around, Brown said.

"People have to go through an adjustment period because their biological system gets shifted," he said. "It takes a few to several days to adjust."

But some students don't think they're going to need time to adjust.

"I have a hard time waking up everyday," said Laszlo Bartos (junior-political science), who has an 8 a.m. class. "It's not going to make a difference."