As DST waned last year, sleep experts across the country spoke up in favor of standard time. Wright is not alone in arguing against daylight saving time. Such a change would have prioritized evening light throughout the year. But if passed, the Sunshine Protection Act would have stopped our turning clocks to and fro.Ĭongress tried a similar - and unpopular - experiment in the 1970s. Senate unanimously voted to make daylight saving time permanent. And he ranks permanent daylight saving time as the worst choice. What if he had to rank permanent daylight saving time, permanent standard time or our current practice of switching twice a year? From a health perspective, Wright says, “I think the answer is incredibly clear.” Permanent standard time is healthiest. When we tinker with time (or light), he says, “we’re essentially making the choice: Do we want to go with what we’ve evolved with, or do we want to alter that?” Morning’s blue light, in particular, is a key wake-up signal. And that, in turn, directs the rhythms of our bodies, from when we sleep and wake to when hormones are released. Humans evolved with a daily cycle of light and dark. Suddenly, people’s schedules are out of sync with the sun.īiologically, Wright says, that’s a big deal. “What we’re doing is changing how we live relative to the sun.” When we move clocks forward an hour, noon no longer represents when the sun is near its highest point in the sky. There’s no change in the amount of daylight, he says. He’s a sleep and body-clock expert at the University of Colorado Boulder. Twice each year, the scheduled clock changes - to daylight saving time each spring, and back to standard time each fall - wreak havoc on sleep and schedules.Īctually, the name “daylight saving time” isn’t quite right, says Kenneth Wright. And they may be telling us something important, science now suggests. For many people, it means losing an hour of sleep and trying to rise before the sun. (Hawaii and most of Arizona don’t observe DST.) That switch shifts an hour of light from the morning to the evening. On March 12, nearly every state in the United States will “spring forward” from standard time to daylight saving time, or DST.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |