Change clocks, lose sleep

All I can remember is to spring forward and fall back and, oh yeah, that I’m exhausted every time it begins and ends. A wave of new research is bolstering arguments against changing our clocks twice a year.

Time to move the clock one hour ahead this weekend. Well, as long as the fun comes during the evening hours. In 1986 Congress extended DST by changing the beginning to the first Sunday in April and having the end remain the last Sunday in October.

The clocks on most smartphones automatically adjust to Daylight Saving Time (DST), but children’s internal clocks aren’t always as quick to embrace the change. This Sunday, at 2 a.m. we set our clocks ahead one hour. Also under the new laws, the entire state of IN now observes daylight-saving time. A similar 2007 study concluded that the loss of just one hour of sleep disrupted human circadian clocks. In 1918, the United States picked up the concept. We can thank the energy crisis of the 1970s for extending daylight-saving time and making it a popular choice with nearly every state. And in Arizona, it’s because more sunlight for the desert state meant more time spent enduring triple digit heat.

There are also the short-term effects, such as an increased likelihood of auto accidents and heart attacks on the Monday after the time change.

However, there may be some benefits to the time change.

States and US territories that do not observe daylight saving time include Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and most of Arizona. In another report it was found there was no evidence that electricity would be saved from the earlier start to daylight saving time and that there was a chance that there could be a very small increase in electricity. A study by the JPMorgan Chase Institute analyzed financial transactions immediately after the time change in Los Angeles, and the same period in Phoenix, since Arizona stays on Standard Time year-round.

Efforts to kill off daylight saving time are almost as old as the time shift itself, and even today, some are trying to get it repealed.