How can daylight saving time impact your health?

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WFXR) – It’s that time of year again. Whether you like it, hate it, don’t mind, or are maybe on the fence, changing the clocks for daylight saving time seems to always be just around the corner.

It has recently been a topic of interest for many people and a political talking point, with calls in Congress to abandon it altogether. Regardless of whether you want to abolish the twice-a-year practice or not, experts have long agreed that it can have an impact on our health.

The most obvious impact is a change in sleep — when you spring forward an hour this weekend, you will, in a sense, lose an hour of sleep (unless you're able to stay in bed a bit longer on Sunday).

Outside of the immediate disruption in your sleep over the weekend, switching the clocks can wreak havoc on our biological clocks, according to Carla Finkielstein, a professor with Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and scientific director of the institute’s Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.

“Research shows that daylight saving time messes with our biological clocks by reducing morning sunlight exposure, which pushes our sleep schedules later and can have negative effects on health,” Finkielstein explained earlier this month. “Staying on standard time year-round is much better for our circadian rhythms, overall health, and well-being.”

Circadian rhythms influence our bodies' functions, including sleep patterns, hormones, appetite and digestion, temperature, as well as some physical, mental, and behavioral cycles every 24 hours, according to the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Other health experts agree with Finkielstein.

Permanent standard time is “undeniably” the best option for our health, “if you believe in science," Dr. Alaina Tiani, a clinical health psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorder Center, previously told Nexstar.

As Finkielstein mentioned, Tiani noted that getting enough sunlight exposure in the morning is important for our melatonin system. When we experience the morning sun, our bodies stop producing the hormone in order to help us wake up.

While permanent standard time would make for earlier sunrises in summertime, you're more likely to be able to sleep through that than fall asleep during later sunsets, according to Dr. Karin Johnson, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and co-chair of the Coalition for Permanent Standard Time.

Among those who could benefit most from those early sunlight hours are children, Johnson noted. She highlighted a study conducted in Indiana, which found that children living on the side that was on permanent standard time did much better on their SATs than children living in the part of the state that changed the clocks twice a year.

Johnson also told Nexstar that other studies have found relationships between sleep and circadian rhythm deprivation and mental health problems, drug use, speeding, delinquent behaviors, educational performance and employment salaries.

“We know that a lot of the drivers for people becoming criminals increase in the sleep-deprived population,” Johnson said. She also noted that research has found that areas where the sun rises and sets later, as it does when we are observing daylight saving time, had 20% more fatal car crashes than those on the opposite side of the clock, refuting an argument frequently made by proponents of permanent daylight saving time that the extra light at night would reduce such incidents.

Another potential benefit of permanent standard time? A decrease in suicide rates. 

According to Johnson, a recent study found that switching to permanent standard time, instead of the seasonal daylight saving time we’re currently on, could prevent up to hundreds, if not thousands, of suicides per year. 

Outside of the health benefits, there’s also the historical point, Johnson noted: The U.S. has tried observing daylight saving time permanently before and “it’s failed.”

States are permitted to exempt themselves from permanent daylight saving time, but lack the authority to observe daylight saving time year-round. For now, only Hawaii and part of Arizona observe standard time year-round.