Daylight Savings Time Might impact Health and Cause Safety Issues

Cardiovascular health

USA- According to an online news report on Cbs12.com, daylight savings time is designed to help conserve energy during the summer months, and yet, the costs may outweigh any potential benefits of this practice.

The time change, although it is just one hour, causes major disruptions to sleep patterns, which can impact health and even cause safety issues.

Experts explain that cardiovascular health takes a hit because of the disruption, along with mental health, errors in medication administration, and even car crashes. Thanks to a combination of all of these factors, the mortality rate increases by three percent during the springtime transition. According to doctors, it takes humans five days to adjust to that hour’s change in sleep patterns adequately. Given that many Americans miss out on sleep normally, the changes from daylight savings time only make an existing problem worse.

A lack of sleep leads to a plethora of health issues, including heart attacks, diabetes, depression, and asthma. Not getting enough sleep may even cause a reduction in the size of a person’s brain.

Doctors now say that the sleep deprivation caused by daylight savings time is such a problem that we can no longer wait for the policy to change. One-way people can reduce the impact of daylight savings time is to start to transition sooner and make such changes gradual. Doing so will lead to a less jarring switch in a person’s schedule.

Research indicates that ending daylight savings would be a boon to road safety as well. Studies state that there is a six percent rise in deadly car crashes the week after the clocks are switched back after daylight savings time. The jet-lag variety exhaustion caused by the loss of sleep leads to fatigue behind the wheel, and that can be about as hazardous would be drunk driving.