Daylight Saving Time

I wonder on average how long it takes for someone to adjust to this. I realize that it will vary person by person, but I feel like I’m suffering more this year than any year prior. I’m exhausted earlier, and I’m wide away at the crack of dawn.  Then I force myself to go back to sleep, because it’s way too early to get up, and then I’m grumpy when I wake up an hour later. It’s a miserable cycle.  I honestly don’t feel like I’ve ever suffered with it this much. It’s just an hour, right?

The New York Times did a  little ditty on it, and said:

“It seems that when the clock is moved forward or back one hour, the body’s internal clock — its circadian rhythm, which uses daylight to stay in tune with its environment — does not adjust. In a study of 55,000 people, for example, scientists found that on days off from work, subjects tended to sleep on standard time, not daylight time: their waking hour followed the seasonal progression of dawn.”

I agree – - my body doesn’t know what time it is, must we throw me all off schedule? What about children, and babies? I can only imagine the process their bodies go through to adjust.

Some more points to prove that it’s just not good for us, as humans.  I realize it has different effects on our environment, etc etc. I’m not here to dispute that.US News reminds us:

• Daylight saving time has mixed effects on people’s health. Transitions into and out of DST can disturb people’s sleeping patterns, for example, and make them more restless at night. Night owls tend to be more bothered by the time changes than people who like mornings, Finnish researchers concluded last year.
• There’s a spike in heart attacks during the first week of daylight saving time, according to another study published last year. The loss of an hour’s sleep may make people more susceptible to an attack, some experts say. When daylight saving time ends in the fall, heart attacks briefly become less frequent than usual.
• People are safer drivers during daylight hours, and researchers have found that DST reduces lethal car crashes and pedestrian strikes. In fact, a study concluded that observing DST year-round would annually prevent about 195 deaths of motor vehicle occupants and about 171 pedestrian fatalities.

So I don’t know about you – but I prefer my sleep undisturbed. Not to mention that it’s dark at 5pm, and so when I come home I’m mentally ready for bed…

Related articles by Zemanta

• Fall Back An Hour: Daylight Saving Ends, Standard Time Returns At 2 a.m. November 1 (huffingtonpost.com)
• Fall back into a better bedtime schedule (parentcentral.ca)
• The History of Daylight Saving Time in the US (neatorama.com)
• Do Wild Pigs Know the Daylight Savings Time? (treehugger.com)

Tagged as: Daylight saving time, Sleep