If you are reading this article and haven’t had a stroke, heart attack or work place accident in the last three days then you have likely dodged a bullet. If, however, you are recovering at home on in hospital then odds are pretty good that you are one of many people who has been harmed by the spring-forward-daylight-savings-time-fiasco (my hyphenation). Personally, I hate losing an hour every spring and me calling it a fiasco is simply my opinion (one that seems to be shared by many).
It takes me about 5 days to feel back to normal after what, on the face of it, seems like a small loss of sleep…and the time to recover seems to lengthen as I get older. In 2016 a group of Finnish researchers looked at stroke risk and daylight savings time and found that the risk of stroke is 8% higher in the two days after springing forward and that cancer patients and people older than 65 were 25% and 20%, respectively, more likely to have a stroke.
The harm associated with losing an hour of sleep has been known for some time. In 2012 a group in Alabama reported that the risk of having a heart attack is 10% higher for the Monday and Tuesday after the spring time change. Other researchers have conclusively found that risk of workplace injury and of getting into an automobile accident is also higher on these two days. As much as we might like to think otherwise, we are creatures of habit built for a 24 hour day.
Changing our circadian rhythm throws a kink into our animal nature and can have profound mood, health and decision making consequences. It is for all these reasons that I would do a jig if the biannual time jump were turfed. Until we are so lucky, know that 8-10 hours of sleep a night is a necessity, maintain excellent sleep hygiene habits and take extra care in all you do for the three days after springing forward.
