The Problem with Daylight Savings
By Albert B. Kelly
It is one of those things that we have always just done and we never gave it much thought, I’m talking about adjusting the clocks twice a year. We have that little saying “spring ahead –fall back” in order to remember what to do in mid-March and early November.
I suppose we always loved the autumn ritual because it gives us an extra hour of sleep. Some might love it simply because it speaks of autumn. Others might curse the darkness, but there’s always spring. Many dread the spring part of the ritual as we lose an hour of sleep. Others put up with it because they like longer daylight and the suggestion that spring and summer are near.
What never occurred to me was that these changes could have impacts on our health, but they do according to those who study sleep and how it affects our health and well-being. Recently, the U.S. Senate voted to make daylight savings time permanent. At first glance, this sounds like a good thing because it means more daylight and less messing around with clocks.
But the sleep experts point out that it’s not that simple. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that there are very real health risks in making daylight savings time permanent. The reason is that we have an internal clock (i.e. circadian rhythm) that controls our waking and sleeping each day and it turns out that daylight savings time is not quite lined up with our circadian rhythm.
While the experts fully support doing away with the whole “spring ahead- fall back” routine, they’re strongly advising legislators to make standard time our resting position and not daylight savings time. While the debate about standard time versus daylight savings time is new to me, the debate has been around for a long time.
Over the years, the research that has been done suggests that daylight savings time results in less sleep or at least less quality sleep because of how the light affects the chemicals that make us sleepy and signal to us that it is time for bed. This in turn can lead to being chronically tired and sleep-deprived and this impacts all aspects of our health.
Others point out that going to permanent daylight savings time will result in a longer period of darkness in the mornings when kids are going to school and people are trying to get to work. This was the case in the mid-1970s when the country was dealing with the energy crisis and kept daylight savings time for an entire year. The result was an increase in accidents of all types.
I still recall waking up, getting ready and going to school in the dark. Then again I also remember that standard time lasted longer in my youth than it does today. Back then, standard time came in October and lasted through April. Now it kicks in November and gives way to daylight savings time in March.
If you are of a certain age, you might remember “war time”, which was daylight savings time year-round from February 1942 through September 1945. If you listen to old radio broadcasts, you will hear the announcer mentioning “war time”.
As one who values sleep and gets far too little of it, I’m in favor of anything that will help people sleep better. In the case of standard time versus daylight savings time, I think we would do well to rely on the body of knowledge that is sleep science. For a long time, we did not understand sleep, we just knew we needed it. Today however, we know how closely quality sleep is tied to all aspects of our health.
Short change sleep over a long enough period of time, and you’ll pay the price. Some studies have linked a lack of sleep to heart problems, cancer, obesity, and problems with our immune systems. And if you doubt sleep is as important as it seems, consider that we use sleep deprivation to break down all sorts of bad guys.
Deprivation aside, we have medications as well as natural supplements to try and help us sleep. We use devices to provide “white noise” when things are too quiet and devices that measure how well or poorly we slept on a given night so we can keep track. If making standard time permanent will help us sleep better, why would we consider doing anything else?