Hello!
I’m a tad bit early with this post topic, but I promise there’s a reason for that.
Save for a lucky few, twice a year we are all forced to throw our entire lives into chaos for a few days until we adjust. Every time, I try to find a definitive answer as to why we still do this past WWII to no avail. I am obviously very passionately opposed to Daylight Saving Time, and so are scientists.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine put out a position statement in 2020 urging the government to finally do away with the practice.
I know we’ve all heard of it, but what exactly is the circadian rhythm anyway? According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, what we think of as our internal clock, the most widely studied, consists of about 20,000 neurons and is located in the hypothalamus near the brainstem. However, these rhythms can also be found in our skeletal system, heart, liver, adipose tissue (fat), and more.
Harvard Health explains that the more disruptive of the 2 yearly time changes is the one coming up on March 9th. “The hour transition in the spring initially causes darker mornings and lighter evenings. Less morning light can decrease levels of the mood-boosting hormone serotonin. In contrast, exposure to light later in the evening can delay the production of melatonin, the hormone that helps you fall asleep.”
So you might be thinking why being a little tired and a little moody is such a bad thing, but as we all should know, especially those like me with insomnia, sleep is pretty vital for your overall health. The negative effects of this disruption are especially detrimental to teenagers, who naturally usually don’t produce melatonin until later at night by 10 or 11pm, yet typically have school by 8 the next day. And are literally in the middle of human development, but I digress. (Also, I’m not a parent so had no idea, but apparently babies don’t develop their circadian rhythms for a few months. That’s why newborns have such erratic sleep schedules.)
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute notes that a lack of sleep can affect the heart and circulatory system (obesity, stroke, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease), metabolism (obesity), hormone production (more than just serotonin and melatonin), and respiratory and immune systems. And that’s just the studied, central circadian rhythm.
One of the most insidious disruptions is light’s affect on the sleep-wake cycle. I’m sure we all know things like scrolling your phone or watching TV on full brightness at night isn’t good for us. Those are things we can control. But “springing forward” an hour and dealing with those daylight shifts when your schedule is based on the time on a clock, and especially when “increased sleep fragmentation and sleep latency present a cumulative effect of sleep loss at least across the following week, possibly longer,” it’s irresponsible in my mind to continue these changes.
The government is barely acting on super -pressing issues that will affect us, especially currently. What can we do about this? That’ll be for Thursday’s post.
Until then.
Salud
No responses yet