The last day of Daylight Saving Time is upon our doorstep, a fall custom when people in the United States, Europe, the majority of Canada and many other nations shift their clocks one hour back in a kind like Groundhog Day trust fall. We’ll be moving the clocks forward (again) in the spring of next year, when governments implement daylight saving back into place.
Are we placing our trust in a shaky old, outdated notion?
According to United States Senate, which in March adopted the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 If it is enacted, Daylight Saving Time will remain in effect for the rest of the year.
“The call to end the antiquated practice of clock changing is gaining momentum throughout the nation,” stated senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was the first to introduce this bill to the US Senate in an announcement. The Florida legislature approved making Daylight Saving Time permanent in Florida in the year 2018, however it isn’t able to take force until it’s a legal in the federal government as well.
The bill is still required to be passed to the US House of Representatives and be approved by President Obama. If that’s the case, then we’ll set our clocks to the next hour and then leave them as they are always one hour ahead of the sun.
However, a growing majority of sleep experts claim that the act of shifting our clocks up in spring is affecting our health. Research over the past 25 years have revealed that the one-hour shift can disrupt the body’s rhythms that are tuned to Earth’s orbit, adding to the debate about whether Daylight Saving Time in any shape or form is beneficial in any way.
“I’m one of the many sleep experts that knows it’s a bad idea,” doctor. Elizabeth Klerman, a professor of neurology within the sleep medicine division within Harvard Medical School.
“Your body clock stays with (natural) light not with the clock on your wall,” Klerman declared. “And there’s no evidence that your body fully shifts to the new time.”
The Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Evanston, Illinois, also is a proponent of Daylight Saving Time.
“Between March and November your body gets less morning light and more evening light, which can throw off your circadian rhythm,” she explained.
The standard time that we get as we shift our clocks backwards in the autumn, is more in line with the sun’s day and night cycles, Zee said. This cycle has established the circadian rhythm of our body, also known as the body clock, for centuries.
The internal timer regulates not only when you’re sleeping but also the time you’d like to eat or work out in addition to “your blood pressure, your heart rate and your cortisol rhythm,” Zee said.
A call to end Daylight Saving Time for good comes via the American Academy of Sleep Medicine: “Current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.”
The idea has been supported by more than twenty scientific, medical and civic groups which include organizations like the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and the National Parent Teacher Association, the National Safety Council, the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms and the World Sleep Society.
What’s the problem?
If our internal clocks are off from the cycle of day and night by even a single hour, we suffer from what sleep experts refer to as “social jet lag.” Research has shown that social jet lag can increase the risk of metabolic illnesses like diabetes, increases the chance of developing stroke and heart disease and increases the risk of mood disorders like depression, impacts digestion and the endocrine system and reduces the duration of our sleep. It may even lower the length of life,
A light box may help people to get exposed to artificial light, which could help fight seasonal affective disorder.
A 2003 study showed that an hour less rest for two weeks produced similar effects on motor skills and thinking in the same way as sleeping without a sound sleeping for two consecutive nights. Reduced sleep by 90 minutes, from an average of 7-8 hours recommended for adults changed the genetic blueprint of cells that make up immune systems, and increased inflammation, which is the primary reason for chronic illness According to a different study.
The change to the time of day being permanent will make the consequences of any loss of sleep worse, and not just “because we have to go to work an hour earlier for an additional 5 months every year but also because body clocks are usually later in winter than in summer with reference to the sun clock,” according to a statement by the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms.
“The combination of DST and winter would therefore make the differences between body clocks and the social clock even worse and would negatively affect our health even more,” the authors concluded.
What was the reason why the Senate approve the bill?
There are many reasons for which the US Senate unanimously approved to pass the Sunshine Protection Act. They say that having more light at night decreases traffic accidents and criminality and creates more chances for recreation and commerce because people are more likely to exercise and shop in daylight hours.
05 daylight savings time alarm clock
Research has revealed that heart attacks as well as fatal car accidents are more likely to occur when the clock is moved forward in spring. Children are also more likely to go to school early in the morning even though it’s in darkness, which can have disastrous effects.
The day that the president Richard Nixon signed a permanent Daylight Saving Time into law in January 1974 the law was a wildly popular choice. However, at the close of the month, Governor of Florida had demanded the law’s cancellation after eight students were struck by cars during the night. Schools across the nation delayed beginning times until the sun rose up.
In the summer, approval ratings dropped and, in the beginning of October Congress decided to change back to normal time.
Similar backlash was experienced during the time the US first instituted Daylight Saving Time in 1918 as a means reduce the demand for electricity consumption by adding daylight at the time of sunset in reaction to World War I. (Studies have since found that there was no or little savings due to the method.) The switch to time was so not popular that the law was repealed in the year following.
“The United States has tried permanent daylight saving time two times before, and then ended it early. The UK tried it before, but ended it in the early hours. Russia attempted it once, as did India and they ended it earlier,” Klerman said. “I think we should learn from history.”
