The Cost of Daylight Savings Time

I’m already dreading it, Spring Forward an hour into daylight savings time. One of the things I lament is the way it darkens my mornings.

Now, sunrise is around 6:50 in Western Oregon. The sky begins to crack with light a half hour before and that early light feels like a reprieve against the winter gray. But all that changes in a week when we flop forward into daylight savings time.

The shift to daylight savings time means the average American, will lose 40 minutes of sleep, according to research from the University of Michigan. In a country where the National Institutes of Health reports one in three Americans are already sleep deprived, the time change can alter our moods and sleep for months. According to a study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, it throws off our circadian rhythms and leaves more than half of us feeling exhausted during the weeks following the time change.

Find the Light

Circadian rhythms exist in organisms even at a cellular level and have been part of our evolution for billions of years. They affect organ function, biological systems, and mental and physical behavior throughout the day. Most organisms—even plants and other animals—have unique rhythms that can be altered by variables like food, temperature, and stress.

But the natural light in the day-night cycle has the biggest impact on these biological systems, and that makes the biannual time transitions disruptive and sometimes even dangerous. The clock changes alter our sleep and waking hours contributing to a higher risk of mood disorders, death by suicide, and an increase in car accidents, according to research.

Sleep issues, not limited to time changes or flying through different time zones, also intensify a range of mental health disorders and are connected to the development of psychiatric disorders. "Sleep-circadian disturbances are present across every psychiatric disorder," according to Dr. Sara Chellappa, the lead author of a research review published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Though many state legislatures and even Congress have debated bills that would eliminate the annual time changes (some states like Arizona have already succeeded), progress is slow.

Reset Your Body Clock

Until the laws change to accommodate our circadian rhythms, we can do a few things to ease the stress of the time change.

Change your routine before you change the clocks. A few days before you change the clock, start going to bed 15 to 30 minutes early and then get up 15 to 30 minutes earlier to make the transition easier.

Trigger your rhythm. Get up and out into the sunshine as early as you can. Fifteen minutes in the natural light in the morning can ease fatigue and slow the release of the tired-making hormone melatonin to help wake you up.

Take 20. If you can avoid napping after the clock change, do it, to prevent sleep problems at night. But if you opt for a nap, keep it short, under 20 minutes to prevent that groggy, sluggish feeling.

Start earlier. Exercise in the first half of the day, eat a bit earlier, and go to bed earlier to help you get an uninterrupted sleep cycle of preferably, seven hours or more.