Daylight saving time: 4 surprising health effects of 'falling back'
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Twice a year, switching between daylight saving time and standard time throws us off our usual routine. We might expect to feel a bit sleepy or maybe even a little “off.” But springing forward or falling back an hour can have other surprising effects: It’s linked to changes in our health, diet and even tendency to get into an accident.
“Sleep is a kind of outward symbol of the timing processes of our body,” explained Chris Winter, M.D., author of “The Sleep Solution” and president of the Charlottesville Neurology and Sleep Medicine clinic in Virginia. “Our bodies function on an internal schedule, from hormone release to body temperature to cognition – and sleep is linked to them all.”
appetite
Blame this one on the hormones. “Appetite in general is often not the body requesting food; it’s the body anticipating food,” Dr. Winter explained. “When your body knows you eat lunch around 12:30 p.m. or so every day, it anticipates and prepares for the meal.”
Your body receives those signals from hormones, like ghrelin, which increases our cravings so we’re motivated to eat, and leptin, which affects feelings of satiety. “These two hormones are intimately associated with sleep, which is part of why when we’re not sleeping well, we tend to overeat,” Dr. Winter said. “It’s a tight hormonal balance and daylight-saving shifts can absolutely throw it off.”
accidents
Speaking of being thrown off, you may find daylight saving time shifts make you feel mentally fuzzy or slow. Sleep disruptions can conversely affect cognitive performance.
Back in 1999, Johns Hopkins and Stanford University researchers published a comprehensive study that analyzed 21 years’ worth of fatal car crash data. They found a small but notable increase in car crash deaths on the Monday after the switch to daylight saving time in the spring: 83.5 deaths, compared with 78.2 deaths on the average Monday.
And studies of workplace-specific accidents have uncovered similar links. Research published in 2009 showed the Monday after switching to daylight saving time saw a 5.7 percent jump in workplace injuries, and nearly 68 percent more workdays lost to injuries, meaning they were more severe. These conclusions were reached by analyzing U.S. Department of Labor and Mine Safety and Health Administration injury data from 1983 to 2006.
mood
Here again, disruptions in our normal sleep schedule can throw off hormonal balances. Lack of proper sleep can exacerbate depressive feelings, anxiety, irritability, and mental exhaustion.
Studies show even partial sleep deprivation can have a negative effect on mood , and as Dr. Winter pointed out, this effect can snowball: When you feel stressed and anxious thanks to lack of sleep from the previous night, it’s hard to settle down for that night’s rest, too.
If you have teens in the house, take special note: “The effects of [daylight saving time] can have more impact on adolescents,” said André U. Aguillon, M.D., assistant professor at the University of Toledo’s medical school and program director of the university’s Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program. “Not only do they require more sleep than adults, but their habitual sleep-wake timing is typically delayed.”
the spring forward has links to heart attack and certain strokes
“The heart has a pretty significant circadian rhythm,” said Winter, who has studied brain-blood flow during sleep. “We tend to see that disrupted sleep may make people more vulnerable when we wake up – not causing a heart attack but perhaps exacerbating underlying conditions.”
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So true facts:
Was watching TV with the hubby, we both passed out on the couch.
Woke up looked at the cable box and saw it was 2:47. I say to Matt, wow good thing it's we fall back tonight.... then Bam! It hits us. The cable box auto resets and it was really 3:47 DST. That was some nap on the couch.
LOL...sounds about right! I don't adjust well to either of these changes, especially the older I get.
LMAO... good one Uppy!
I like that quote a lot. It especially makes sense for people who measure the day by how long the sun is above the horizon rather than by some arbitrary external measure.
Ditto.
I would like it better if clocks were turned other way so we would have longer light in the evenings
I find the fall back very jarring and depressing. The day is suddenly gone by 5 pm and the little daylight we have in the morn, is little compensation.
I love the fall back but not the spring forward.
Lol try living in the north, the day has been gone by 5pm for about a month now and this fall back just means it won't be completely dark again in the morning for another couple weeks.
I love it in the morning, but this evening, when I'll need my headlights to drive home from work, I'll hate it.
Not a fan of DST. My body clock never adjusts.
Glad the time is back to normal.
That is a very common issue and as we get older it does become harder to adjust. As you can see, I am quite on the fence about this whole thing.
So that is something I have to look forward to happen to me in the future huh? (he said while have a shit eating grin innocent look on his face and his tongue firmly placed in his cheek)
I really hate you spring chickens!
I'm only 58. I am not quite dead yet. But each year it does take more time to get used to it.. worse in the spring though I need that extra hour.
I just turned 65 but I am about 21 in my head .
That's a good way to be. I think I may be 30 in my head.
It doesn't bother me at all. I worked 3rd shift for years and used to switch every weekend to sleeping nights so a one hour change one way or the other is nothing to me.
That is how my dad used to feel when he worked the graveyard shift. He never even noticed the change.
The cause of Daylight Savings Time is really no longer relevant. We operate businesses 24/7 today, not just 9 to 5 on weekdays. Farms operate 24/7 as well, particularly on large dairy operations.
Tom,
That is very much true (with the exception of small farms).
That depends on the size of the small farm and what time of year it is. I can tell you from experience out here in Oregon with tractors and combines having many lights on them, they are usually operating in the seed farms (Linn County is the grass seed capital of the world) until midnight at times during the harvest.
I live on Long Island and we must be in the stone age. The local farms are still family run and they rise early and end with the sun down, including the vineyards. The chicken farms day is over by 10 in the summer.
It is a stupid tradition that is not necessary.
I can't stand it getting dark at 5 pm.
Considering DST was created so fieldhands would not have to start work in the dark you might have a good point. Still, I think it does make some sense as a consideration for workers who have to be in early. Start times are not as cruely early as they used to be for most people. 6 and 7 AM usted to be normal start times for businesses. Things change. Staying on standard time all the time would not effect me except for not having to figure out how to reset all the clocks. I can never remember how to reset my cars. Thankfully more things update automatically...
Like our DVR which lead to our confusion, LOL.
LOL.. I live in Phoenix, here we don't change times. But, I have a cheep battery wall clock that does. So twice a year if I'm not aware of it I'll look at the clock and be an hour off til I realize WTF is going on.
damn this confusing cheap self adjusting aggravating frickin clock. lol
Yeah, it is kind of depressing.
My biggest bitch about DST is my critters s don't follow a clock. So my animals wake me up at 3 am instead of 4.
That reminds me of something.
I used to have a friend who grew up in a small Swiss village. One day i got to see her slides of her parents farm, inn and restaurant. The village cheese house (I still think of working there) and, of course, the village.
One of the things I remember best was of that old clock maker sitting on a rocking chair on the porch in front of his shop. My friend told me, the clock maker didn't believe in DST. He left his clocks on standard time year round and ran his business hours according to standard time year round as well.
Good story Dave!
Wally was a bit out of sorts this morn. He tried to get us up, too.
Once again, I wasted a free hour by staying up later than usual and getting up earlier than usual. Sigh.
Well, that does stink, but we actually slept in today.. so it took the edge off of the couch nap, which really is poor sleeping (or so they say).