Permanent Daylight Saving Time will hurt our health, experts say
Permanent Daylight Saving Time will hurt our health, experts say

Permanent Daylight Saving Time will hurt our health, experts say

Daylight saving time is over again, and much of the United States, Europe, Canada, and many other countries have a fall tradition of turning their clocks back an hour in a sort of Groundhog Day hesitation. We plan to move forward (again) next spring when the government resumes daylight saving time.

But do we trust unhealthy and outdated ideas?

No, daylight saving time will be permanent once it becomes law, according to the US Senate, which passed the Sunlight Protection Act of 2021 in March.

Sen. Marco Rubio (D-Florida), who first introduced the bill to the Senate, said in a statement, “Calls to end the outdated practice of changing clocks are gathering momentum across the country. The Florida legislature voted to make daylight saving time permanent in Florida in 2018, but it cannot go into effect until it becomes federal law.

The bill still needs to pass the US House of Representatives and be signed by the president. If this happens, we advance our clocks and stay that way, always one hour ahead of the Sun.

But a growing number of sleep experts say turning the clock back to spring is bad for your health. Research over the past 25 years has shown that a change of one hour can alter the body’s rhythms, which are tuned to the Earth’s rotation, fueling the debate over whether some form of daylight saving time is a good idea. many sleep experts,” said Dr. Elizabeth Krellman, a professor of neurology in the Department of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“Biological clocks work with (natural) light, not wall clocks,” Clerman said. “And there is no evidence that his body is fully transitioning into the new age.”

Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Evanston, Illinois, also opposes daylight saving time.

“From March to November, your body sees less light in the morning and more light at night, which can throw off your circadian rhythm.

According to Zee, the standard time we enter when we turn our clocks back in the fall is much closer to the Sun’s day/night cycle.

This internal timer monitors not only when you sleep, but also when you eat, exercise, and work, as well as “your blood pressure, heart rate, and cortisol rhythm.” In the good opinion of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, calls to ban DST said: “The available evidence best matches human circadian biology and provides clear public health and safety benefits for annual daylight savings time. The best advocates for the adoption of standard time through

The proposal has been endorsed by more than 20 medical, scientific, and community organizations, including the American Academy of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the National Parents Association, the National Safety Council, the Biorhythm Research Association, and the World Sleep Association. . ..what harm?
When our internal clocks drift from the solar day/night cycle by even an hour, we experience what sleep experts call “social jet lag.” Studies show that social jet lag increases the risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, increases the risk of heart disease and stroke, exacerbates mood disorders such as depression, affects the digestive and endocrine systems, and interferes with sleep , reduces life expectancy and can even reduce life expectancy. A 2003 study found that one hour less sleep for two weeks had the same effect on thinking and motor performance as two sleepless nights. Another study found that reducing sleep from the recommended 7-8 hours for adults to 90 minutes changed the DNA of immune cells and increased inflammation, a leading cause of chronic disease.

Permanent time zone changes exacerbate the chronic effects of sleep deprivation. This is because “not only do we have to get to work an hour earlier for an additional five months each year, but our internal clocks are also behind our normal clocks in the winter than they are in the summer,” a statement from the Association for Biological Rhythms. Research: “Therefore, the combination of daylight saving time and winter time exacerbates the difference between our biological and social clocks, further affecting our health,” the authors concluded.

Why did the Senate pass the bill?
There’s a reason the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Protection Against Injury Act.

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