Daylight Savings Time May Cost You
Extra—Both in Terms of Money and Health
March 04, 2015
Story at-a-glance
-
Research suggests you never fully adjust your
circadian rhythm to the hour shift associated with
daylight savings time (DST)
-
Losing an hour of sleep may increase your risk for a
heart attack over the following three days, due to
the compromising effect sleep deprivation has on
immune function, blood pressure, and C-reactive
protein
-
Suggestions are given for mitigating the adverse
effects of the time change, including getting up 30
minutes earlier on the weekend, avoiding
electronics, and getting bright sun exposure in the
early morning
By Dr. Mercola
For Americans, it’s that time of the year again—time to move your
clocks an hour ahead; losing a precious hour of sleep in the
process. For many, the time change associated with daylight savings
time1
(DST) also means spending several days or even weeks feeling
generally off-kilter.
As reported by Prevent Disease:2
“A study, published in 2007... combined surveys from
55,000 people in central Europe with data on 50 individuals'
sleeping and wakefulness patterns for eight weeks around the
shifts to and from daylight saving time.
The researchers found people never fully adjust
their circadian rhythms to the hour shift associated with
daylight saving time (or, as it is known in Europe,
summer time).
Springing ahead by an hour, however, was most difficult
for night owls -- people prone to wake up and go to sleep late,
they found.” [Emphasis mine]
The issue of whether daylight savings time (DST) should be
abolished comes up at regular intervals, and for good reason.
As explained in the featured video, daylight saving time is
intended to give you more access to daylight hours, thereby reducing
energy costs and promoting healthy outdoor activities, and for
nearly a century countries around the world have moved their clocks
forwards in the spring and backward in the fall.
But is it really worth it? There doesn’t appear to be any
good reason for this time tinkering in today’s modern age, and a
number of countries, and even regions within countries, have opted
out of DST.
Areas that do not have DST include: the northern part of Brazil,
Saskatchewan (Canada), large portions of Australia, Puerto Rico, the
Virgin Islands, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana
Islands, and the state of Arizona.
Daylight Savings Time Is Rough on Your Health
The research is quite clear on the health effects of this
meddling with time. In short, it’s not good for you, and spikes in
both heart attacks3
and suicide4
in the days following daylight savings attest to the stark reality
of such findings.
The adverse health effects of losing an hour of sleep when the
clocks move forward—and the ripple-effect it causes for days and
weeks afterward—are significant, and really highlight the
importance of sleep for mental and physical functioning.
The “Monday cardiac phenomenon” has been recognized for some
time.5
More cardiac events occur on Mondays than any other day of the week,
and changes in sleep associated with the transition from weekend to
work week may play a significant role.
When daylight savings gets added into the mix, this risk tends to
become even more pronounced One 2012 study6
found that heart attacks increased by 10 percent on the Monday and
Tuesday following the time change to DST. Heart attacks decreased by
10 percent on the first Monday and Tuesday after clocks are switched
back in the fall.
According to the study’s author, Martin Young, Ph.D:
“Individuals who are sleep-deprived weigh more and are at
an increased risk of developing diabetes or heart disease. Sleep
deprivation also can alter other body processes, including
inflammatory response, which can contribute to a heart attack.”
An earlier study7,8
found a five percent increase in heart attack in the first three
weekdays after the switch to DST. The risk decreased again after
clocks were reset back to standard time in the fall.
Kazakhstan abolished DST in 2005, citing health complications as
the reason for its decision. In 2011, Russia’s president Dmitry
Medvedev also cancelled DST due to the “stress and illness” it
causes on human biological clocks.9
Productivity Goes Down and Accidents Go Up in Days Following DST
Change
Studies also show DST causes the entire country to take an
economic hit from lost productivity. When you consider that this
happens once every year, the cumulative effect on productivity is
likely to be very significant.
According to Till Roenneberg, a German chronobiologist, your
circadian body clock (which is set by daylight and nighttime
darkness) never adjusts to the gaining of an "extra" hour
of sunlight at the end of the day during daylight saving time. So
you may actually remain slightly “off” for the entirety of the DST
season.
"The consequence of that is that the majority of the
population has drastically decreased productivity, decreased
quality of life, increasing susceptibility to illness, and is
just plain tired," Roenneberg has said.10
Data11
from the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
also shows an increase in the number and severity of work-related
accidents on the Monday following DST.
According to one 2009 study,12
workplace accidents and injuries increase by nearly six percent, and
nearly 68 percent more workdays are lost as a result of injuries
following the change to DST.
Ditto for traffic accidents, which rise by about eight percent on
the Monday following the changeover to DST.13
Fatal alcohol-related traffic accidents increase for the first week
after setting the clocks ahead.14
Daylight Savings, Does It Really Save Energy?
The origin for daylight savings time was rooted in the idea that
it could save valuable resources. Ben Franklin appears to have been
the first person to suggest the concept, after awaking at 6am one
morning in Paris, realizing that the sun was already up well before
him.
Getting up earlier and going to bed earlier, thereby using less
oil to power lights, could save a lot of money, he reasoned. During
World War II, the US mandated daylight saving time as a way to save
wartime resources.
Alas, times have changed. At best, DST may save you a handful of
dollars on your electric bill each year. At worst, you end up paying
a lot more. According to Michael Downing,15
a teacher at Tufts University and the author of Spring Forward:
The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time:
“Daylight saving is... a boon to purveyors of barbecue
grills, sports and recreation equipment, and the petroleum
industry, as gasoline consumption increases every time we
increase the length of the daylight saving period.”
Daylight Savings Might Be Jacking Up Your Energy Bill Each Year
According to the National Bureau of Standards, DST has virtually
no effect on energy usage. A 2007 report by the California Energy
Commission’s Demand Analysis Office16
also found that daylight saving time “had little or no effect on
energy consumption in California.” But some studies suggest it
actually wastes energy—and quite a lot of it at that. A
story reported by the Wall Street Journal17
back in 2008 highlighted these findings. Up until 2006, only 15 of
Indiana's 92 counties adhered to daylight savings time.
Following complaints from residents who struggled from being out
of sync with businesses and friends in neighboring counties, the
Indiana Legislature finally mandated daylight savings time be
enacted state-wide. This presented economics researchers with an
excellent opportunity to compare energy usage before and after
adoption of DST, to see if and how much money was really being
saved. As it turned out, the answer was none. In fact, DST
cost Indiana residents millions of dollars in added energy costs
each year! As reported by the Wall Street Journal:18
“Using more than seven million monthly meter readings
from Duke Energy Corp. covering nearly all the households
in southern Indiana for three years, they were able to compare
energy consumption before and after counties began observing
daylight-saving time. Readings from counties that had already
adopted daylight-saving time provided a control group that
helped them to adjust for changes in weather from one year to
the next.
Their finding: Having the entire state switch to
daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard
time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in
electricity bills. They conclude that the reduced cost
of lighting in afternoons during daylight-saving time is more
than offset by the higher air-conditioning costs on hot
afternoons and increased heating costs on cool mornings. "I've
never had a paper with such a clear and unambiguous finding as
this," says Mr. Kotchen, who presented the paper at a National
Bureau of Economic Research conference...”
So What Can You Do?
Let’s face it, as much as you and I may disagree with DST, there
is little to no likelihood that our collective objections will do
anything to stop it. So what can we do? My strategy, and the one
that I strongly encourage you to adopt, is to seriously commit to
getting the highest quality and longest sleep you can possibly get.
For decades I prided myself on getting by on five hours of sleep or
less. I gradually changed that to between six and seven hours,
deluding myself into believing that because I was so healthy I could
do it.
Finally by the time I hit 60, I began to realize that my
perception of sleep was seriously distorted and that I need to
carefully reevaluate it. Very similar to being unaware of the
dangers of prolonged excessive sitting as being every bit as
pernicious as not exercising at all. So in the past six months,
largely as a result of feedback from my fitness tracker, I have been
able to increase my sleep to 8.5 hours per night. I sincerely
believe that using some type of sleep monitoring device, such as a
fitness tracker, is the key to changing your behavior. For those
concerned with the relatively insignificant amount of EMF they
generate, there are monitors that sit on your nightstand that can
monitor your sleep.
Since my regular sleep is about 8.5 hours, when I travel and am
forced to cut back my sleep to five hours or so, I’m relatively
insulated from the damage of intermittent lack of sleep. In some
ways I suspect that our ancient ancestors never consistently slept
8-9 hours so, just like intermittent fasting, we likely do just fine
with intermittent sleep disruptions. But I sincerely believe that
it’s crucial to understand intermittent. I think sleep disruptions
should be the rare exception when your personal circumstances limit
you from sleeping the more ideal 8-9 hours. Many recent studies have
s shown that one of the most potent improvements in professional
athletes was merely increasing their sleep by one to two hours,
which allowed their bodies to get more full recovery.
Sleeping Well Is Critical for Good Health
Sleep problems are epidemic in the US, both among kids and
adults. A recent review of the research suggests most people, teens
and older, need right around
eight hours of sleep per night. Ideally, you should sleep enough
hours that your energy is sustained throughout the day without
artificial stimulation. Short-term sleep deprivation—such as what
most experience when time “springs forward” is associated with:19
- Memory and cognitive impairment
- Impaired performance and alertness
- Occupational injuries
-
Automobile injuries
Chronic sleep deprivation is associated with increased blood
pressure, heart rate, blood clotting, and C-reactive protein, an
inflammatory marker associated with deadly heart attacks. Shift work
is also known to dramatically increase all-cause mortality.
According to
Clinical Psychologist and sleep specialist Rubin Naiman, PhD,
sleeping less than six hours per night may double your risk of
angina, coronary artery disease, heart attack and stroke.
Sleeping less than six hours per night may also increase your
risk for diabetes by impairing the way your body responds to
insulin. Impaired insulin sensitivity, also known as
insulin resistance, occurs when your body cannot use insulin
properly, causing your blood sugar levels to rise to unhealthy
levels. Insulin resistance is a precursor to type 2 diabetes, as
well as a risk factor in many other chronic diseases.
How to Protect Yourself During the ‘Spring-Forward’
There is very little good to be said about switching to daylight
savings time. Research points to a long list of adverse outcomes,
including increased heart attack risk, increased automobile
accidents, lost productivity at work, increased chances of getting
sick, and even higher suicide rates. There is also little evidence
to suggest that DST reduces energy usage, which was its original
intent.
But in addition to the strong recommendation of increasing your
sleep to 8-9 hours on a consistent basis, there are some other
things you can do to mitigate the effects of the time change—at
least until the powers that be decide to get rid of it altogether.
University of Alabama Associate Professor Martin Young suggests the
following natural strategies to help your body resync after the time
change:
- Wake up 30 minutes earlier on Saturday and Sunday, to
minimize the impact of getting up earlier on Monday morning
- Go outside in the sunlight in the early morning
- Exercise in the mornings over the weekend, in accordance
with your overall level of health and fitness
- Consider setting your clock ahead on Friday evening,
allowing an extra day to adjust over the weekend
I generally agree with his suggestions, to which I would add the
following:
- Be particularly mindful of using electronic devices in the
days prior to the switch-over. Research20
on teens shows that using electronics for four hours during the
day can increase your risk of needing more than an hour to fall
asleep by nearly 50 percent. Using any device for more than two
hours per day increases the likelihood of needing more than an
hour to fall asleep by 20 percent. So, if you’ve ever considered
“unplugging” for a day or two, the weekend of the DST
switch-over is a perfect time to turn everything off, or cut
down your use of electronics to a bare minimum so that you can
optimize your sleep.
- Pay attention to your diet, making sure you are consuming
plenty of fresh, whole foods, preferably organic, and minimal
amounts of processed foods and fast foods; keep your sugar
consumption very low, especially
fructose. I invite you to review our total
nutrition plan here.
- Practice good sleep hygiene, including sleeping in complete
darkness, checking your bedroom for EMFs, and keeping your
bedroom temperature no higher than 70 degrees; for a full report
about how to maximize the quality of your sleep, refer to our
previous article on
sleep.
- Optimize your
vitamin D levels.
-
Manage your stress with whatever stress-busting techniques
work for you.
- Consider
supplementing with melatonin if you have trouble sleeping.
- If you have a
fitness tracker that tracks sleep, start using it. If you
don’t have one, you may want to consider getting one. During
daylight savings time, making sure you’re getting enough sleep
may be more important than ever. One of the keys to optimizing
your sleep is going to bed early enough, because if you have to
get up at 6:30am, you’re just not going to get enough sleep if
you go to bed after midnight. Chances are you’re getting at
least 30 minutes less sleep than you think, as most people do
not fall asleep as soon as their head hits the pillow.
Many fitness trackers can now track both daytime body
movement and sleep, allowing you to get a better picture of how
much sleep you’re actually getting. Newer devices, like
Jawbone’s UP3 that should be released sometime this year, can
even tell you which activities led to your best sleep and what
factors resulted in poor sleep.
Copyright 1997- 2015 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/03/04/health-effects-daylight-savings-time.aspx
|