Twice a year, every year, Americans dutifully change the clocks throughout their homes, cars and offices in service of daylight saving time. But if losing an hour of sleep or suddenly being expected to stay up an hour after your normal bedtime is disrupting your routine, you鈥檙e not alone.
According to , clinical sleep disorder specialist at 脱衣直播, daylight saving time isn鈥檛 just a mild inconvenience 鈥 it鈥檚 dangerous.
In fact, have found that the risk of stroke, heart attacks and traffic accidents increases in the days following the switch to daylight saving time (moving an hour forward in the spring).
鈥淎mong the sleep science community, there is no controversy: The consensus is that we should eliminate daylight saving time and stick with standard time permanently,鈥 Wyatt says.
Dangerous time
How does shifting around an hour of our day a couple times a year presents a danger to Americans?
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the change from standard to daylight saving time is associated with an increased risk in the following areas:
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Hospital admissions and emergency room visits
- Missed medical appointments
- Sleep disruption
- Mood disturbances
- Suicide
- Traffic accidents
- Work absences
- Stock market volatility
- Poor athletic performance
Wyatt says all of these issues are a result of time changes tampering with the natural circadian rhythms of our bodies. These functions help our brain signal that it鈥檚 time to go to sleep, but they also control countless other organ systems throughout the human body.
鈥淲e have clocks throughout the body,鈥 he explains. 鈥淎 special region in the hypothalamus regulates our circadian rhythms and acts as the master pacemaker, telling us 鈥楬ere鈥檚 daytime, so do this, now it鈥檚 nighttime do that.鈥 Our organ systems have to change their function depending on what time of day it is.
鈥淥ur gut digests more at night and less during the day, urine production reduces in the evening so we can sleep through the night more easily, our temperature is higher during the day than at night, and all of this is regulated by our circadian rhythm.鈥
When those rhythms get interrupted 鈥 such as when we travel across time zones, work rotating shifts and twice a year when the clocks move forward and back 鈥 our bodies have a stress response.
According to an survey, more than half of respondents said they felt extremely or somewhat tired after the shift to daylight saving time in the spring.
"Many people plan to go to bed an hour early when the clocks change, but they rarely do,鈥 Wyatt says. 鈥淭hat means you鈥檝e just lost an hour of sleep and your circadian rhythms are misaligned, which explains why we see an increase in accidents after daylight saving time begins.鈥
Easing into time changes
While the academy and more than a dozen other organizations have adopted the position that public health and safety would benefit from the elimination of daylight saving time, there鈥檚 no way to know when or if this will come about.
In the meantime, there are ways to maintain your sleep hygiene and health to help you spring forward and fall back more easily.
According to Wyatt, easing into daylight saving time in the spring is just a matter of planning a few days in advance.
鈥淭he simplest way to manage the springtime shift is to go to bed and get up 30 minutes early on the Friday immediately before the time change,鈥 he says. 鈥淭hen, shift it 30 minutes earlier for the following night. By Sunday鈥檚 time shift, you鈥檒l be back onto your regular schedule without suddenly losing an hour of sleep.鈥
Simply breaking up a one-hour time shift into two 30-minute shifts goes a long way to allowing your body to adjust to the new schedule while reducing strain on your circadian clock, and helping you enjoy your extra hour of evening daylight.
Fortunately, the fall time change tends to have less of a negative impact on most of the population. Wyatt suggests that going to bed at the same time as you normally would the night before the time shift will give you an extra hour of sleep that most of us can use.
