The Pitfalls of Daylight Savings Time
Be extra cautious when you “fall back” on Nov. 7, 2021.
That’s the date we must set our clocks back one hour in honor of daylight savings time.
But watch out.
The jarring shift to our daily sleep patterns and routines each Fall — and each Spring — is linked to an increase in heart attacks, strokes or automobile accidents, according to Business Insider.
In the Spring, when our clocks “spring forward,” hospitals report a 24 percent spike in heart-attack visits around the U.S.
After the time change, groggy drivers are also more likely to rub fenders with other groggy drivers.
In fact, researchers estimate that car crashes caused by sleepy daylight-savings-time drivers likely cost 30 extra people their lives every year over the nine-year period from 2002-2011, reports Business Insider.
“That's how fragile and susceptible your body is to even just one hour of lost sleep,” sleep expert Matthew Walker, author of "How We Sleep," told Insider.
The reverse happens in the Fall when clocks are set back one hour. Heart attack visits to hospitals drop by 21 percent — but pedestrian deaths increase.
According to NBC News, “pedestrians walking during the evening rush hour are nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars than before the time change.…”
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Copyright 2021 Tom Purcell, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com
