“Sleep is super important for us to kind of restore certain functions and our kind of build up, for lack of a better term, strength, you know, so we can function during the day,” explained Dr. Gordon Harkness, a family physician and medical director with Optum Utah.
Dr. Harkness emphasized the importance of sleep to overall functioning. Most adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night, although there is some variation from person to person. He said a lack of sleep can have many consequences including poor focus.
“We also see things like mood disorders are worse when people are not getting enough sleep, so things like depression and anxiety, and then it even kind of heads into the cardiovascular realm as well,” said Dr. Harkness.
Daylight savings occurs every year on the second Sunday of March for most places in the US. It starts in the spring, when clocks move forward an hour and it ends in November when clocks are moved back an hour. While daylight savings is generally intended to allow for better use of natural light, there can be negative effects, particularly on sleep schedules.
According to Dr. Harkness, even just an hour difference in sleep is important.
“Some interesting things that we see during that week after the spring forward, when we lose an hour, you can see a spike in the number of car accidents that are happening during that week. And it's something that's been pretty consistent year after year. You see a spike in the number of patients going to the ER with cardiac type things going on. They did a study on high school students, and they found that during that first week after that spring forward, on average, these high school students were getting at least around a half hour less of sleep per night, which can be a big deal.”
It can take up to a week to adjust to the time change so Dr. Harkness recommends preparing by setting an alarm for 15 minutes earlier each night leading up to the change.
“Since our circadian rhythms are so much tied to natural light, daylight, you know, when you're trying to get up and you're having a hard time with that, getting outside, if you can, and getting that natural stimulation from natural sunlight can make a big difference as well in helping to make an adjustment to the circadian rhythm a little bit faster,” Dr. Harkness recommended.
