L’daylight savings time returns to replace solar time: in the night between Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 March 2023 the clocks will jump forward an hour, forcing us to give up an hour of sleep. For many, the experts explain, the spring transition to summer time risks turning into a sudden experience of sleep disturbances, tiredness and moodiness.
In fact, the transition from solar time to summer time can have some problems health consequencesdue in particular to the extension of daylight in the evening hours.
Summer time is back: the effects on health
L’daylight savings time will come back into force on the night between Saturday and Sunday oflast weekend of March as has been the case every year since 1981, bringing with it its effects not only on the duration of daylight, but also on sleep quality, humor and – as demonstrated by some recent studies – on cardiovascular pathologies and accidents.
In particular the spring transition – which in Italy formally takes place at 2.00 on the last Sunday in March – steals an hour at the first light of the morning to give it away in the evening, and this can have important consequences on health. The transition to daylight saving time, as the professor explains David Quaranta of the UOC Neurology of the Gemelli Polyclinic interviewed by Rtl 102.5, “somehow misaligns the biological time compared to conventional time, i.e. the time established by clocks”.
The problem with the transition to summer time, explains Professor Quaranta, is that our body is not always able to follow this with the right speed “abrupt transition”, which imposes hours of light and darkness on us, among other things, “which we must coordinate with work, recreation and social activity”.
The latest studies on daylight saving time and health
“This misalignment it can cause a series of repercussions: the most obvious are on sleep”, explains the professor of the Gemelli Polyclinic, but there is evidence of effects also on mood and cardiovascular pathologies. It even seems that in the days following the time change there are a greater number of road and work accidentsas argued by a study published in 2009 in the Journal of Applied Psychology by Professor Christopher Barnes of the University of Washington.
studies onimpact of summer time on health there is no shortage, and it is also on the strength of these data that the hypothesis of its abolition in Europe has gained ground: in 2008 a research conducted in Australia discovered – studying the data from 1971 to 2001 – that the suicide rate among Australian men it increases in the days following the time change, while a 2012 study by the University of Alabama found a 10% increase in heart attacks in the two days following the transition to daylight saving time.
Another Finnish study, presented in 2016 at the congress of the American Academy of Neurology, highlights an increase in stroke and stroke rate within 48 hours following the time change.
Daylight saving time: “a sort of artificial jet lag”
However, the most important and widespread problems among the population refer to sleep deprivation and its effects. The misalignment between the biological clock and the conventional clock creates “a kind of artificial jet lag”, explains Professor Quaranta, who amplifies a problem we already live with due to needs that have little to do with health, namely the “phase delay”.
“In Western society there is a tendency to postpone the time of sleep nocturnal”, which is now very far from the time of sunset, and the sudden extension of daylight can increase this effect, with consequent loss of sleep.
“On the other hand, a little less light in the morning pushes you to wake up less”, creating a sort of vicious circle: the morning light in fact it is essential to activate the organism and dictate the natural rhythms of the body, and that hour of missing light can heavily affect thehumoras “exposure to light in the first part of the day is more effective than in the second part”.