On March 14, 2021, the United States shifts to daylight saving Time, a time adjustment that allows people to wake up one hour earlier. Studies have found that missing an hour of sleep is harmful to health.
At 2 a.m. on March 14, 2021, the U.S. will switch to daylight saving time, and clocks will move one hour earlier. This also means that people’s sleep time will also be shortened by one hour. According to the study, the time of year change can actually have unintended harmful health consequences.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, jumping clocks forward and backward to standard time each year, a method of optimizing daylight hours, is claimed to save energy, prevent traffic accidents and reduce crime. What are the facts really like? Can the loss of one hour of sleep really cause that much damage?
Multi-Year Study: Daylight Saving Time Time Shift Affects Health
In February 2020, research published in the journal Current Biology showed that the advent of daylight saving time in the spring can cause a 6 percent spike in fatal car accidents in the first week. Michael Awad, chief of sleep surgery at Northwestern Medical School in Chicago, believes this is a “very significant number.
“A one-hour reduction in sleep time overnight may not sound that bad for your health at first glance. But the time lost can have a significant impact, especially in many of us who sleep less than the recommended seven to nine hours,” he said. He said.
A study published in October 2018 in the Journal of Biological Rhythms found a significant rise in general incidents and emergency room visits after the start of spring daylight saving time.
An eight-year study of healthcare professionals showed an average increase of 18 percent in safety-related human errors during the first week of spring daylight saving time. The data are presented in abstract form in the April 2020 issue of the journal Sleep.
Daylight saving time disrupts the body’s biological clock
The body does not do well when it is asked to live in a different time zone,” said Elizabeth B. Klerman, PhD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a sleep researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Changing clocks for daylight saving time has a similar effect to jet lag, which we know can be detrimental to health in the long run.
She also says, “The light at night and the darkness in the morning shift your body to a later time, but the social clock has shifted to an earlier time, so it’s harder to fall asleep and people sleep less.” She believes many bad things happen as a result of sleep deprivation.
Many body systems and functional processes (such as sleep, digestion and heart function) follow a circadian rhythm, or a consistent pattern (about every 24 hours) from day to day. For example, according to the National Institute of General Medicine (NIGMS), these circadian rhythms trigger physical, mental and behavioral changes that keep us healthy – hormones are released in the morning to boost energy and speed digestion.
Cues from the sun usually keep these circadian rhythms on track (through a network of cells in the brain called the “biological clock,” Awad said. “But our behavior – sleeping much later than usual on Saturdays, spending a lot of time in front of a bright screen at night (which the body registers as stimulating sunlight), or eating a big meal in the middle of the night – can send a mix of information to the body, misaligning the body’s various circadian rhythms.”
He believes that crossing time zones and switching clocks to daylight saving time has an effect similar to misaligning the body’s clock with the wall clock and the rotation of the sun.
Effects on heart health
Although, people’s bodies will adjust to the new schedule after a few days or a week, there is evidence that the change may still affect people’s health, and more specifically, heart health.
In an article published in the journal Open Heart, researchers found that the risk of heart attack increased by 24 percent on the first Monday of spring daylight saving time, and that risk tapered off over the course of the week. Conversely, a “fall-back” Tuesday was associated with a 21 percent lower risk.
Daylight saving time may disrupt the normal release of the stress hormone cortisol, which may increase the risk of heart attack in older adults and people with heart disease, according to Jamie M. Zeitzer, PhD, an associate research professor at the Stanford Sleep Science and Medicine Center in Palo Alto, Calif.
He believes cortisol levels usually rise at about the same time each morning, giving the energy needed to ease sleep and enter a wakeful state. “If you get up too early, peak cortisol hasn’t happened yet.” He says; “Without the help of cortisol, your heart has to work harder to get you moving again, increasing your risk of heart problems.”
Warm tips to help you get through daylight saving time easily
Faced with the arrival of daylight saving time, is there any way to mitigate the negative effects of the time change or not? The 5 tips described below will help you get through daylight saving time easily and reduce the risks to your health.
- Get into a good sleep base
Awad believes that the more consistent the sleep schedule is, the fewer changes the body must make when the time changes before the shift. Also make sure you’re getting enough sleep regularly. If you sleep eight hours a night, a night of one hour less sleep will be a much smaller problem than if you regularly sleep six hours and miss an hour.
He advocates establishing healthy sleep habits by trying to go to bed and get up at the same time each day, limiting caffeine from late afternoon, and avoiding bright light exposure at night (turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime).
- Gradually shift sleep from one week before daylight saving time
As daylight savings time approaches, start rolling back your sleep schedule by about 15 minutes and move your wake-up time 15 minutes earlier each morning. That is, if your usual bedtime is 11 p.m., go to bed at 10:45 p.m. on the Monday before daylight savings time begins; the next night, try calling it quits at about 10:30 p.m. and continue until you hit the one-hour mark.
“This helps your body adjust gradually instead of getting hit with an hour-long time change.” Awad says.
- Gradually change dinner times
Another major driver of circadian rhythms is Food,” Awad says. Eating too close to bedtime can make it difficult to fall asleep because the human body is too preoccupied with digestion and therefore can’t think about resting all night.”
“In general, it’s a good idea to stop eating three to four hours before bedtime.” To prevent any interruptions in the program, he says, “shift the last meal (usually dinner) to an earlier time about a week before the start of daylight saving time.” He recommends making the switch in 15-minute increments until you reach 1 hr.
- Switch all clocks the night before daylight saving time begins
Whitney Hardy, a Family physician at Ochsner Health Center in La Parque, Louisiana, suggests making sure to move the hands of all clocks ahead of time before going to bed the night before daylight saving time. “Doing so may make the time change feel less confusing. Then, you’ll be ready to live by the new time, just the day after you wake up.”
- Start a new day with the sun
While a delay in circadian rhythms after daylight saving time is inevitable, it is possible to use natural sunlight to keep the biological clock as closely aligned with the solar clock as possible. Awad says, “Getting brighter early in the morning is key.”
Try getting 15 minutes of sunshine first thing in the morning. If you live in a warm climate, you can go outside and get some sunshine. Awad also talks about how even sitting by a window with your morning coffee can help. “Later, avoid wake-up blue light from cell phones, laptops and other electronic devices that are too close to your bed.”
Since 2015, at least 29 states have enacted legislation to eliminate daylight saving time in the U.S. In October 2020, in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) cited short- and long-term health risks as the basis of their argument for abandoning daylight saving time altogether.
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