It is widely documented that achieving consistent sleep quality is one of the most important things we can do to improve health. It affects hormones and strength.
Alas, every year with the switch to Daylight Savings time and back, everyone in the US gets their sleep disrupted for days. This is especially bad with young kids who take longer to adjust and thus amplify the negative effects for their parents. Being in my fifties with two younger kids, I have come to hate the time shift. When I was younger I would enjoy the extra hour of sleep when “Falling back” but these days that is equally disruptive.
There have been many studies on the negative effects. Somehow the debate seems to even have shifted to whether to permanently adopt “standard time” or “daylight savings time” year round.
A recent article in Scientific American has a good overview of studies in this area and a quote a new study which has pretty clear results:
The [computer model’s] results showed that, over the course of a year, most people would experience fewer abrupt changes to their circadian rhythms under permanent standard time, in which morning light exposure is greater. With whole-year standard time, the study estimates U.S. obesity prevalence would drop by nearly 0.8 percent—meaning roughly 2.6 million fewer people with obesity nationwide. Stroke prevalence would also fall by about 0.09 percent, representing more than 300,000 fewer cases.
This seems compelling. Why is our government (in all states) not taking action?