| By Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, RN |
Autumn has arrived, and most of us recently adjusted our clocks to fall backward one hour, ending daylight saving time for 2024 and giving us the chance to recoup that hour of sleep we lost by springing forward last March. If you felt a disruption to your internal clock as well, you’re not alone. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) reports that most Americans experience at least some physical manifestations of the impending twice-yearly time change in a manner similar to jet lag, and often even before it happens.
The transition to daylight saving time in March is usually more difficult on overall health than the autumnal reversion to standard time, but sleep disruptions can occur with either cycle change. Most commonly reported with turning back the clock in autumn are feeling sleepy earlier or waking earlier. Additional symptoms can include an awareness of light sensitivity, anxiety, and feeling distracted.
After the time change, people commonly comment on how how unnaturally early darkness seems to arrive in the evening, and that it feels much later in the day than the clock actually shows. The sudden loss of an hour of sunshine during the active part of our day can lead to temporary feelings of fatigue, or lead us to feel less like being active or socializing. Experts recommend that capturing a bit of sunlight with a 15-minute walk during the morning hours will help protect sleep patterns and mood as winter approaches.
Some people experience the time change more acutely than others due to a heightened awareness of the actions of their circadian rhythm, the body’s natural time cycle that helps regulate processes including sleep, digestion, and alertness relative to the sun cycle. Studies have also recently shown that our sleep/wake chronotypes (the patterns of behaviors based on genetic inheritance that help determine whether we’re early birds or night owls) tend to react differently to the twice-yearly time changes. The March transition to daylight saving time, for example, tends to be harder on the sleep patterns of the late-night “wolf” chronotype (like myself), and reverting to standard time tends to be harder for “lions,” the natural early risers among us who could find it more difficult to sleep through the night. The “Circadian Rhythm and Chronotype” portal in the Gale Health and Wellness database has much additional and practical information about how chronotype and circadian rhythm influence health. I hope you will take a look there.
Most people adjust successfully to the new time frame within a few weeks, but that doesn’t mean that they look forward to the semi-annual time changes. According to a 2021 Associated Press poll, about 70 percent of Americans want to eliminate the change, but they’re less united about which time frame to adopt. Florida Senator Marco Rubio recently mentioned potential benefits from a bill he has twice introduced in Congress that seeks to adopt year-round daylight saving time, including more daylight hours for recreation and business. But the AASM supports permanent standard time as better for health, citing an increase in mortality from heart attack, motor vehicle accidents, and other causes that accompany transitioning to daylight saving time. Also, AASM scientists compared the natural variations in the duration of sunlight at the edges of time zones and found that where darkness occurs earlier, most people experienced about 20 more minutes of sleep each night compared to people living in areas where the sun set later. These extra minutes translated to benefits in overall health and safety.
If twenty minutes of extra sleep can make a difference, I’ll gladly reclaim the hour that comes with reverting to standard time. And then, I’ll reconsider the darkness that comes with winter, which I previously dreaded, as an opportunity for a natural circadian reset. I’m wishing everyone a happy autumn, and standard time well spent.
