In other words, the timing of daily work, school or sleep routines is based on the clock, rather than on the sun’s rise and set. Circadian misalignment refers to a mismatch in timing between our biological rhythms and the outside world.
Scientists believe that these health problems may result from a combination of chronic sleep deprivation and “circadian misalignment”. Other research has found that rates of certain other cancers are higher on the western edge of a time zone. This study found that western edge residents had higher rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and breast cancer, as well as lower per capita income and higher health care costs. One study showed that people living on the western edge of a time zone, who get light later in the morning and light later in the evening, got less sleep than their counterparts on the eastern edge of a time zone. Geography can also make a difference in how daylight saving time affects people. This means that during daylight saving time, many young people get up and travel to school in pitch darkness. For instance, many children start school around 8 a.m. This shift in melatonin during puberty lasts into our 20s.Īdolescents also may be chronically sleep deprived due to school, sports and social activity schedules. This can interfere with sleep and cause us to sleep less overall, and the effect can last even after most people adjust to losing an hour of sleep at the start of daylight saving time.īecause puberty also causes melatonin to be released later at night, meaning that teenagers have a delay in the natural signal that helps them fall asleep, adolescents are particularly susceptible to sleep problems from the extended evening light of daylight saving time. In contrast, exposure to light later into the evening delays the brain’s release of melatonin, the hormone that promotes drowsiness.
This is particularly notable because morning light is valuable for helping to set the body’s natural rhythms: It wakes us up and improves alertness.Īlthough the exact reasons are not yet known, this may be due to light’s effects on increasing levels of cortisol, a hormone that modulates the stress response or the effect of light on the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in emotions. So it’s a permanent shift to later morning light for almost eight months – not just for the day of the change or a few weeks afterward. This is because our clock time is moved an hour later in other words, it feels like 7 a.m. Springing forward is harder on the body, however. While some people may feel thrown off balance and need a few weeks to recover, research hasn’t linked it to serious impacts on health. “Falling back” – going from daylight saving time to standard time each November by turning the clocks back one hour – is relatively benign. Based on an extensive body of research, my colleagues and I believe that the science establishing these links is strong and that the evidence makes a good case for adopting permanent standard time nationwide – as I testified at a recent Congressional hearing.
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