Is daylight saving time very bad for us? The American expert explains

Alarm clocks can have long -term health consequences.
Photo: 123rf

American biology teacher Erik Herzog, who studies circadian rhythms, says that staying in permanent standard time can be healthier for us than the economy of the day.

The clocks came back an hour this morning, when the New Zealand Day economy came to an end.

The economy of the day was introduced in 1927 and assumed several different forms, before the current format was implemented in 2007.

Only a third of the world embraces the economy of the day and most Americans no longer want it, although they can not agree with what should replace it.

“We have bills in progress being discussed in Congress, usually 2-3 bills per state in all 50 states,” Professor Herzog of Washington, Washington University told the University of Washington Sunday morning.

“This year, for the first time, we have more accounts in favor of permanent standard time than ever.”

Herzog said standard time can be better for humanity. People may wake up in the dark and go to bed while still taking during summer time, but they also need morning light to synchronize your internal clock and not depend on awakening awakening.

Changes in this circadian alignment are similar to Jetlag, where the body takes several days to adjust to changes in time zones.

“If you are using your alarm clock to wake up, as many of us are waking up unnaturally,” he said. “It turns out that awakeners and being forced to wake up when you don’t finish sleeping have long -term health consequences.

Professor Erik Herzog said standard time can be better for humanity.
Photo: Joe Angeles / University of Washington / Provided

“I think you’re doing you very well – you feel good, your mood is high – but in terms of synchronizing your circadian clock by local time, this light is tending to delay the time of your bed and delay your awakening time.

“The next morning, when it’s time to get up and go to work or school, your biological clock is saying, ‘No, no, no, I need to sleep for another hour’, but your alarm clock is saying that social hours need you to get out of bed.

“You are sleepy and stressing yourself, and we think these things have negative consequences on things like heart health and metabolic health.

“I love the sun in the afternoon, for sure. I love summer, of course, but I think summer time is not good for our health the way we manage it now.”

Herzog noted that ‘falling back’, as we have just done, can be beneficial compared to ‘coming forward’.

“We see in repeated studies around the world a decrease in car accidents the next day when it returns,” he said. “We see a decrease in heart attacks and see a decrease in several other health and crime -related statistics.

“On the other hand, when we moved to daylight saving time and lost an hour of sleep, we see a net increase in heart attacks, car accidents and other bad things that last about three days, but that’s not the main reason why I’m advocating permanent standard time.”

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