I hope everyone has adjusted to our switch to Daylight Savings Time by now. Do you notice any impact on your daily routine? Apparently there are some negatives, because on March 8, 2017, the Time magazine Newsbrief listed seven negative impacts on health.
According to Dr. Sandhya Kumar, assistant professor of neurology and medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina, a one-hour shift can have a major impact. “With the spring time change, you essentially have to go to bed earlier and get up earlier, which is difficult for many of us to do, Most of us end up losing 40 to 50 minutes of sleep those first few days—and as a nation that’s significantly sleep deprived to begin with, even that little change can impact health.”
Some of those impacts are —
1. In vitro fertilization success rates drop in March.
2. Heart attacks spike after the spring time change. A 2014 study published in Open Heart found a 25% jump in the number of heart attacks occurring the Monday after DST starts.
3. Stroke rates rise when DST starts and ends. Preliminary research in 2016 found that stroke rates in Finland are 8% higher, on average, in the two days following both time changes compared to the two weeks before or after.
4. Fatigue and “cyberloafing” are rampant.
5. Teens are especially exhausted; several studies have reported increases in fatal automobile accidents in the days following the spring time change.
6. Cluster headaches are more likely.
7. Depression diagnoses increase in the month following the shift back to standard time. Ironically, there was no difference for the spring time change.
But there is hope. This article also links to “4 tricks to make an easy Switch to daylight saving time.”
The complete article is at http://time.com/4694142/daylight-savings-health-impact/?xid=newsletter-brief.