How does daylight savings time affect your health?
Early Sunday morning most of the United States “fell back” an hour and 2am became 1am.
It should come as no surprise that most people are already sleep-deprived. Doctors recommend that teens should get at least 8 hours and adults should get at least 7 hours of sleep each night. But changing habits is not as easy as it might sound. So, it makes sense that the twice yearly occurrence of switching our clocks sets our bodies off too.
Lack of sleep should not be taken lightly because research has uncovered that sleep affects many aspects of humans’ health. According to the Associated Press, “Research suggests that chronic sleep deprivation can increase levels of stress hormones that boost heart rate and blood pressure, and of chemicals that trigger inflammation.” These issues are then known to lead to increased heart problems, car crashes, and other larger problems. Since changing the clock for daylight savings time affects our sleep patterns, which then affects our overall health, why do we still have this system?
Why have we not changed anything yet?
According to “The Hill,” states are allowed to permanently observe standard time (the time we have November through March) year-round, but not permanent daylight savings time without legislation from Congress. Some federal legislators have proposed to stop the cycle of leaping forward and springing back by giving state’s the power to stay on day-light savings time year round. Multiple bills, such as the Sunshine Protection Act, have been introduced by federal legislators to give states the power to stay on daylight saving time year-round. However, such bills have not left committee and are basically stuck in Congress.
Since states are not able to observe permanent daylight savings time without new legislation from Congress, most people will have to once again change their clocks next March on the second Sunday of the month.
Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/daylight-saving-2023-fall-back-a3738d5c74301b8068825927c49fc6b4
