Daylight saving time was introduced some time ago to save energy. But saving energy has side effects on the health of the body, let’s see what they are.
There are at least 5 side effects that are harmful to human health. Several scientific studies say so.
A few years ago thesummer time had become a topic of discussion in the European Parliament. What did MEPs have to discuss in Strasbourg? It is easy to say: some groups had asked the commission to abolish daylight saving time. For what reason? This is also simple: upsetting people’s ‘internal clock’ twice a year can be harmful to health. Hence the request to the European Parliament to carefully examine the issue of summer time.
In fact the scientific research seems to confirm some of the most frequent complaints on daylight saving time. which in Italiawe recall, it was definitively adopted in 1966. Summer time had previously been introduced, in the period between the two world wars, as a measure for save energy.
Summer time, the 5 side effects on health
Even science therefore brings grist to the mill of those who argue that energy saving should not be done at the expense of people’s well-being. In particular they are 5 and motifs which lead us to state that summer time is “bad” for healthhere’s what they are.
1. We sleep worse
On the night when daylight saving time comes into force, yes sleeps an hour less. We all know that and it’s why we gladly curse her for the lost hour of sleep. But the point is that the consequences of this upheaval go far beyond that night only. For most people the transition period is much longer. And this applies both to the changeover from standard time to summertime and to the reverse changeover from summertime to standard time. Someone puts us even three weeks to get used to at the time change. Others, on the other hand, manage to dispose of the effects of the change in just one day.
The effect of the time change is that you sleep less and worse: sleep ends up being more disturbed. This was revealed by a study that appeared on Neuroscience Letters. How does daylight saving time affect our physical organism? Through the so-called circadian rhythmor that sort of “internal clock” which regulates various cyclical functions of our body. When it is dark, melatonin, one of the substances involved, is synthesized and thus sleep is promoted. But with daylight saving time there is a problem: the sun rises later, making it difficult to activate the “wake” mode. Conversely, in the evening the light ends up lasting longer and longer. In this way the body is again confused, “busting” the timing to enter the “rest” mode. Something of similar to time zone syndrome. Those who tend to wake up later seem to suffer the most, while those who are early risers seem to suffer less.
2. Farewell concentration
Sleeping less and worse also means losing focus and productivity at work. A 2012 study by the Journal of Applied Psychology goes in this direction which showed that with daylight saving time dramatically increase the time lost by workers to “cyberoze”. In other words, looking at sites that have little or nothing to do with work. The researchers specifically looked at Google’s data on searches for websites that fall into the “entertainment” category. The day taken into consideration by the research was the Monday following the entry into effect of daylight saving time in the USA. The results show that compared to the previous Monday, American workers searched 3% more sites without any productive connection with work (such as Facebook or YouTube).
Another study that also took place in the United States, in Indiana, showed instead how the county students (which then could choose whether or not to adopt daylight saving time) where it had been introduced the time change obtained lower scores (by 2%) in the SAT tests, that is, those to be admitted to colleges. And that could have been enough to see themselves penalized in entering the most prestigious US universities.
3. More car driving accidents
It seems certain that fatal accidents decrease when daylight saving time remains in force (spring, summer and early autumn). A decrease probably due to the fact that there is more light on the street when people come home from work. But there is one exception: the Daylight saving time starts on the Monday. Accidents increase on that dayin all likelihood because thelost hour of sleep leads to more sleepy people behind the wheel, as well as distracted. In confirmation there is also a study on miners which detects a increase in workplace injurieswhich in addition to occurring more frequently are also more serious when the clock hands are seen to move forward.
4. More heart damage
Many studies show that there is a heart attacks peak in the first week of DST. It is known that there is a higher risk of a heart attack in the morning, probably because the cardiovascular system has to quickly adapt to various changes when you wake up. It is possible that the lost hour of sleep increases stress. Consequently, also increasing the risk of a heart attack. For this reason, doctors suggest that heart patients gradually adapt to the time change, even just a quarter of an hour each day.
5. Increase in suicides
According to an Australian study in the first weeks after the time change, suicides increase. And the same phenomenon also occurs in the weeks. According to the researchers, even a slight change in chronobiological rhythms can cause serious effects in those most at risk.