ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — After springing forward, many of us are still playing catch up on our sleep. Doctors with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) are warning a bill to make daylight saving time permanent is a bad idea and could put your health at risk.
Dr. Nathaniel Watson is a neurologist and sleep specialist at the University of Washington Sleep Center.
“Going to permanent daylight saving time is a profound mistake. Basically, it would dose every single person in the United States with permanent jet lag," Dr. Watson said.
"We’ve done this before back in the mid-70s during the OPEC oil embargo, we went to permanent daylight saving time as a country, and people really disliked it. We ultimately went back to our current situation.".
He points out 70 percent of the world is on standard time including Arizona and Hawaii. Doctors with AASM say that would be a better idea than daylight saving time.
Dr. Watson explains we have three different clocks — your internal clock that's the circadian rhythm that controls how your body functions; the second is the sun and where it is in the sky; and then, our social clocks — the schedules and things that interfere with those two other clocks.
He shared this sharper insight that there's existing research that shows those who live in the western part of a time zone are more likely to be obese, have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or breast cancer. You're more likely to have lower productivity too.
“Going to permanent daylight saving time is like moving everyone westward in their time zone,” Dr. Watson said.
“If you're on the eastern edge of a time zone, and it's 7 a.m., the way the sun is aligned over you is going to feel like 7 a.m. But, if you're on the westward edge, the clock says it's seven but your body feels like it's six, so there's it's getting out of sync. So basically permanent daylight saving time is a social construct that’s making our body clock be out of sync with the sun clock, and that causes health consequences for us.”
Dr. Watson says no matter the outcome of the legislation, focus on getting at least seven hours of sleep a night.