Some health specialists are pushing for a uniform time all year round, which would eliminate daylight saving time, because of its health effects. But how does daylight saving time actually affect our bodies?
For some reason, during the start and end of daylight saving time, there are elevated risks of car accidents, heart attacks, and strokes. Researchers have studied this phenomenon frequently. According to hospitals in Michigan, there was a 24% increase in heart attacks at the start of daylight saving time. The harsh transition to the new time has to do with our bodies’ circadian rhythm. First introduced in America in March 1918, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday of March and ends on the first Sunday of November every year.
There is an old tale that Benjamin Franklin was the person who came up with daylight saving time. However, this is not true; He wrote an essay joking to Parisians that if they woke up earlier, they would save money on candles.
In 1918, the Standard Time Act was enacted, which would add daylight hours to the day to cut energy costs during World War I. Then again, in 1942, Congress signed another law supporting daylight saving time that stated the system would promote national security and defense— this came during World War II. Extra daylight hours increased productivity in war factories and among the workers. Daylight saving time got the nickname “war time” because of this. However, despite Congress enacting laws instituting daylight saving time, not all states observe it. For example, Arizona, Hawaii, and US territories do not observe daylight saving.
The physical effects the time change has on your body have to do with a combination of factors: the circadian rhythm, sleep deprivation, and environmental changes. First and foremost, we mustn’t forget that, besides getting different lengths of sleep, it is getting darker a lot earlier at the end of daylight saving time and a lot later at the beginning of it in March. “When it is dark out earlier and I am driving down the highway I become less alert since I cannot see the road as well,” said Ken Vaughan, a student at SCH. Ken’s comment is a testament to the fact that drivers have trouble to adjusting to light changes.
Next, our internal clocks, known as the circadian rhythm, are affected by changes in lighting and time changes. Our bodies are helped up in the morning with natural light and put to sleep at night as the light fades. Hormones and chemicals in our brains are closely linked to the circadian rhythm as well. “I feel like when I do not get enough sleep I wake exhausted and I am not prepared to go about my school day,” said Joe Pie, a student at SCH. I can attest to Joe’s comment because I, too, feel greatly affected when I do not get enough sleep. Many schools have considered starting later, as they realized how the effects of sleep deprivation impact school performance and grades.
Whether you are affected by daylight saving or not, it affects most Americans, and there is data to support this. Will a joke of Benjamin Franklin to save candles last for centuries to come, or will the time-saving system come to an end?
