Maybe it’s time for a change when it comes to this annual time-change ritual.

With most of the U.S. springing forward Saturday-into-Sunday — remember to move your clock ahead an hour at 2 a.m. — that lost hour of sleep has health and safety experts once again warning that a sluggish Monday can lead to everything from a spike in heart attacks to dangers on the road as the work week starts again. It also has some Free Press readers questioning whether daylight saving time has outlived its usefulness.

“It serves no purpose,” commented one reader, reacting to a story about a University of Michigan study that suggested a spike in heart attacks on the Monday following the springtime change.

“Pick a time and stick with it year-round,” wrote another.

Others dismissed those comments, saying a one-hour time change isn’t such a big deal.

“People could just… get to bed an hour earlier,” wrote a third.

The real problem is chronic sleep deprivation, said Dr. Safwan Badr, immediate past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and a sleep specialist at Detroit Medical Center.

At least 30% of Americans — most likely many more — are chronically sleep-deprived, falling short of the recommended seven hours a night (more for teens and young adults), he said.

That leaves no wiggle room for losing yet another hour.

Badr also directs the sleep fellowship program at Wayne State University School of Medicine. So yes, he hears it all the time: You don’t need all that sleep, right?

“We are so sleep-deprived, it’s the new normal,” he said.

Badr feels so strongly about the importance of shut-eye, he used to write it on a prescription pad for his patients: Sleep for eight hours a night for two weeks and then let me know how you feel.

Sleep allows the body to recharge and studies show it cuts the risks of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and other health problems, he noted.

Still not a believer? Consider that you need glasses but never had them before. You might think you see just fine, he said.

Then, someone hands you your first pair.

“Much better, right?” Badr said.

So why exactly do we lose an hour’s sleep each spring — something that was first proposed, somewhat jokingly, in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin?

The idea behind it was to squeeze the most out of daylight, and Woodrow Wilson signed it into law in 1918, in part, to save on energy costs during World War I.

But studies since then have been mixed. Some suggest there are fewer traffic accidents and injuries when clocks are manipulated so it’s daylight when roads are most congested. Others argue that the lost hour makes drivers less alert.

Still other studies have linked the change to health problems.

Whether it really saves on energy costs is still open to debate.

For his part, Badr personally sees no use for daylight saving time, not because of the sleep issue, but rather “I don’t like it being light outside at 9:30, 10 o’clock at night,” he said.

He added with a chuckle: “I’m sure golf courses like it.”