Is Daylight Saving time change a good idea?

We have all just experienced the agonizing pain of waking up 1 hour early on a monday morning. According to a recent study, daylight saving time change might not necessarily be beneficial to your health.

It has been found the “Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead  one hour in March is associated with a 10 percent increase in the risk of having a heart-attack,” says UAB Associate Professior Martin Young, Ph.D., in the Division of Cardiovascular Disease. Furthermore, the risk is decreased in October by 10 percent.

This study also indicated heart-attack tends to peak on Monday when most people get up earlier to go to work. Why this is happening is not exactly known however, Yougn proposes “Sleep deperivation, the body’s circadian clock and immune responses all can come into play when considering reasons that changing the time by an hour can be detrimental to someone’s health.”

How does these three factors affect the risk of  heart-attack?

Sleep deprivation has been a well studied topic, it has been found “individuals who are sleep-deprived weigh more and are at an increased risk of developing diabetes or heart disease,” furthermore sleep depriviation alter infalmmatory response, which can contribute to a heart attack.

According to Young, “every cell in the body has its own clock that allows it to anticipate when someting is going to happen and prepare for it,” but when cell clocks are anticipating another hour to sleep that they won’t get, the negative impact of the stress worses”

Lastly, in the case of immune function, because “immune cells have a clock, and the immune response depends on the time of day, and acute time change can be detrimental to the immunte system response”

This study may sound scary, however our body’s clock eventually synchs with the environment.

But do not worry!

Professor Young have a few tips for this problem!

-waking up 30 minutes earlier on Saturaday and Sunday to prepare for the early start on monday

-do more exercise

References

References

1. Circadian rhythm sleep disorder.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/circadian_rhythm_sleep_disorder.htm (accessed 03/12, 2012).
2. Circadian rhythm. http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/circadian_rhythm.htm  (accessed 03/12, 2012).
3. Jet lag. http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/j/jet_lag.htm (accessed 03/12, 2012).
4. Sleep deprivation. http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/j/jet_lag.htm (accessed 03/12, 2012).