Many body systems and processes (like sleep, digestion, and heart function) follow circadian rhythms, or patterns that stay consistent from day to day (roughly every 24 hours). Changing the clocks for DST has similar effects to jet lag, which we know can be damaging to health over the long run. Klerman, MD, PhD, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and sleep research investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The body doesn’t do very well when it’s asked to live in a different time zone,” says Elizabeth B. Similarly, a study published October 2018 in the Journal of Biological Rhythms found a significant uptick in general accidents and emergency room visits after the start of DST in the spring.Īnd in a study published January 2021 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine that followed healthcare workers across multiple states for eight years, researchers found there was an 18 percent increase in safety-related human errors on average for the first week of DST in the spring.ĭST Disrupts Our Body Clock, Which Throws Off a Lot More Than Just Sleep “That’s a really significant number,” Awad says. Research published February 2020 in Current Biology revealed that the onset of DST in the spring is associated with a 6 percent surge in fatal car crashes during the first week. But, the lost hour can have significant effects, especially among the many of us sleeping less than the recommended seven to nine hours that is recommended to begin with, Dr. RELATED: Are You Sleeping Too Much? Here’s How to Tell Can Losing 1 Hour of Sleep Really Do That Much Harm? Research Says YesĬutting sleep short one hour one night might not sound that detrimental to health on first glance, says Michael Awad, MD, chief of sleep surgery at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. states have introduced legislation to eliminate the clock change, per the National Conference of State Legislatures - though federal law does not yet allow states to adopt full-time DST. In fact, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) cites short- and long-term health risks as the basis of their argument for doing away with changing the clocks altogether, according to a statement published October 2020 in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. states that don’t), research is increasingly showing that the annual time change can actually have unintended detrimental consequences to health. But for those who live in states that practice DST (Arizona and Hawaii are the only U.S. Jumping the clock forward and back to standard time every year was designed as a way to optimize daylight hours, which supposedly nets energy savings, prevents traffic accidents, and reduces crime, according to the U.S. Every second Sunday in March marks the start of daylight saving time (DST), the annual period of the year the clocks are shifted one hour ahead.
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