Brighter Mornings and Darker Nights

Let’s Stop the Insanity of Daylight Saving Time

Many people think that permanent daylight saving time will mean later sunsets throughout the year. While true, this extra hour of light in the evening comes a significant cost to our health and well-being.

Light is essential to our health

Our body uses light to organize our internal clock to tell us when to eat, sleep, and function at our best, both physically and mentally. Standard time aligns best with our natural body clocks, with darkness in the evening helping us to sleep, and light in the morning helping us to wake up.

Daylight saving time (DST) creates a misalignment between our body clocks and our external clocks. When we artificially move our clocks forward an hour, we expose our bodies to increased light in the evening, making it harder to fall asleep, and darkness in the morning, making it harder to wake up.

In addition, because our society does not adjust social clocks (or expectations for the time when adults go to work and kids go to school), wake times are not allowed to shift later, resulting in not getting enough sleep.

Consequences of Switching to Daylight Saving Time

During the week after our external clocks move forward one hour, we see an increase in heart attacks, motor vehicle crashes, and workplace injuries. In the long term, chronic sleep deprivation puts us at increased risk for obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and depression.

As a proponent of both permanent standard time and healthy school start times, I want to also emphasize how permanent daylight saving time will defeat all of the gains made across the U.S. in terms of later secondary school start times. In my own work, after getting more sleep, most students reported that their favorite part of later high school start times was going to school when it was light out. They discussed how this helped them feel more awake and happier each day.

An Extra Hour of Evening Light Comes with a Significant Cost in the Morning 

Permanent daylight time means kids are going to school (and adults are going to work) in the dark. Here is a comparison of sunrise times on standard vs. daylight saving time during the winter months.

Comparison of sunrise times in the Mountain Time Zone on both Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time

Yup, that’s right, on DST the sun won’t rise for most of the winter until around 8:00 am. Think about how that darkness will make you or your child feel every morning as you have to wake up, get ready, and commute to work or school in the dark…

It is no coincidence that we celebrate Baby Sleep Day, World Sleep Day, and National Sleep Awareness Week in March. This is the month where most Americans lose yet one more hour of sleep.

Enough is enough, we need brighter mornings and darker nights, in other words, permanent standard time.

How to Prepare for and Adjust to The Start of Daylight Saving Time in the Spring

Until that happens, here is how you can prepare for the spring time change (moving clocks forward one hour).

Try to go to bed and wake up ~15 minutes earlier each night until you are on the new time.

If you don’t have enough days to make a gradual shift, make sure you are waking up at the new wake time, and get lots of bright natural light exposure in the morning.

Finally, know that it will be a tough week. Most people will be able to adjust to the one hour time change in 3 to 7 nights, although for some people it can take a little bit longer. Try to maintain a consistent sleep-wake schedule, with consistent daytime routines (meals, exercise, etc.) to help your body adjust.

How to Prepare for and Adjust to The End of Daylight Saving Time in the Fall

Until that happens, here is how you can prepare for the fall time change (move clocks back one hour).

Try to go to bed and wake up ~15 minutes later each night until you are on the new time.

If you don’t have enough days to make a gradual shift, make sure you are waking up at the new wake time, and get lots of bright natural light exposure in the morning (which should be easier since the sun will be rising earlier!).

Most people adjust to returning to standard time without much difficulty. However, it is still important to maintain a consistent sleep-wake schedule, with consistent daytime routines (meals, exercise, etc.) to help your body adjust.