End Of Daylight Saving Time Comes With Less Sun And Variety Of Potential Health Problems
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Daylight Saving Time ends this weekend. The extra hour of sleep that we get Sunday morning also comes with less daylight and a variety of potential health problems.
We go back to Eastern Standard Time on the first Sunday in November at 2 a.m., so overnight Saturday, technically.
It's just an hour, but doctors say even a small change in when you sleep can cause problems.
With the end of Daylight Saving Time, clocks will fall back an hour, giving us an extra hour of sleep. Sounds great right? Doctors say, not really.
Gaining or losing an hour can impact sleep patterns for about five to seven days.
The most notable changes are for people who are already sleep-deprived, which can increase problems with memory, learning, social interactions and overall cognitive performance.
With time changes, doctors say it's best to try to re-establish sleep patterns quickly.
"The best thing patients can do today and moving forward is try to keep the bedtime consistent, try to keep the wake time consistent, keep the room dark, keep it a little cooler and try to eliminate any lights in the room or outside lights and significant changes in temperature and noise," Dr. Daniel Klauer, with the Sleep Therapy Centre, said.
Here's an advantage of going back to standard time.
Your risk of having a heart attack the Monday after we fall back drops 21%. But the Monday after we spring forward in March, the heart attack risk goes up 25%.
With less light during the day, the risk for seasonal affective disorder increases -- that's a depression caused by a lack of sunlight.
The sun will start setting before 5 p.m. in the afternoon and for many, that's one of the biggest negatives of the time switch.
There's also an increase in the number of drowsy driving car accidents right after the time switch.
