Daylight saving time has real health effects

Tomorrow morning, many people in the U.S. will “spring forward” into daylight saving time. On one hand, the time change can be welcome because it always seems to beckon the onset of spring and of longer days – hooray! On the other hand, the first few mornings can feel brutal. Alarm clocks tell us it’s time to drag ourselves out of bed, but the darkness says otherwise. And for some people, it can take far longer than a few days to adjust. Many children with early school start times find themselves heading out in pitch darkness.

This seemingly minor and temporary adjustment to losing that hour of sleep is far more than a mere inconvenience, however. That lost morning light plays a critical role in setting up the body’s natural circadian rhythms, which are intricately tied to the sun’s rising and setting. So the jolt into daylight saving time has real health implications – not the least of which is chronic sleep deprivation, explains Beth Ann Malow, a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University.

So over the next week, go easy on yourself. Know that if you’re struggling with the time change, you’re not alone – and that there’s a scientific explanation for why you feel so cruddy.

This week we also liked articles about professional baseball’s labor issues, how laws worked in biblical times and Chinese-Russian relations.