Daylight Saving Time Is not Good for Our Health

Written by John Mac Ghlionn on March 14, 2024. Posted in Current News

Every year, on the second Sunday of March, the vast majority of Americans set their clocks forward by one hour for daylight saving time. While DST provides an extra hour of evening light and enjoys public support, new research suggests its negative health impacts outweigh the benefits.

In fact, sleep deprivation and disruption of the body’s internal clock due to DST contribute to increased medical errors and malpractice payments, according to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. “DST may influence incidence of medical errors and decisions on medical malpractice payments both acutely and chronically,” the authors wrote.

After analyzing nearly three decades of malpractice claims, researchers noted a significant rise in the severity of medical errors and compensation awarded during DST compared to standard time.

Why Is This the Case?

The shift to DST has faced scrutiny due to its potential effects on health, as it disrupts the body’s circadian rhythm—the internal clock that regulates patterns of sleepiness and wakefulness throughout the day.

The transition to DST in the spring is closely linked to drowsiness, heart-related issues, and traffic incidents, Michael Scullin, who has a doctorate in psychology and is one of the study’s authors, said in a press release.

However, only recently have psychologists and medical professionals acknowledged DST’s impact on decision-making processes. “ The current results,” he noted, “add to this literature by showing that an area that one would hope would be immune—medical errors and malpractice litigation—is susceptible, too.”

Mr. Scullin and his colleagues examined 288,432 malpractice claims from the National Practitioner Data Bank, the most extensive database of its kind in the United States, spanning January 1990 to September 2018. The study focused on the immediate effects of the DST shift by comparing claims from the week before and after the springtime adjustment.

Moreover, it delved into the long-term consequences by juxtaposing claims during DST months with those in months adhering to standard time. States that do not observe daylight saving time, such as Arizona, Hawaii, and Indiana (until April 2006), were used as control groups in the investigation.

The Findings Were Rather Sobering

The correlation between the switch to DST and medical errors was undeniably strong.

The paper was motivated by our work published in 2019,” Mr. Scullin told The Epoch Times. They conducted a laboratory experiment and found that people were much more willing to punish physicians for medical errors if they had been mildly sleep-restricted.

While laboratory experiments don’t always translate to the real world, in this case, the researchers observed the same principle in their new paper: very mild sleep restriction from the spring DST shift increases the willingness to punish physicians for medical errors, Mr. Scullin said.

The authors were impressed by the findings due to the intricate nature of medical errors and litigation in the real world, he added. These occurrences, along with the determinations of claim payments, stem from dozens of factors.

“Even still, there was a ’signal‘ (DST effects) amongst all the potential sources of ’noise,’ which tells us that mild sleep restriction and mild circadian misalignment are consequential on both the individual and the population level,” Mr. Scullin, who has been investigating how sleep deprivation impacts memory, cognition, and overall health, added.

This is not the first paper to highlight the detrimental association between DST, which reduces sleep opportunity by one hour, and medical errors. Chances are, it won’t be the last.

The effects of DST must be viewed through a broader lens. Springing forward doesn’t just negatively impact the medical community. It has a negative effect on millions of Americans of various ages and backgrounds.

Almost a decade ago, research by the American College of Cardiology showed that the likelihood of experiencing a heart attack on the first Monday following the loss of an hour of sleep due to DST was 25 percent greater than on other Mondays in the year.

DST Comes With Financial Costs Too

In 2016, a study published in the American Economic Journal revealed that the loss of sleep caused by the time change during the “spring forward” to daylight saving time results in an annual economic cost of $275 million. This is due to the fact that DST raises the likelihood of fatal car accidents, which contribute significantly to this economic burden.

It’s important to remember that DST was initially created to conserve energy in the evenings and was first used during World War I. However, recent studies clearly show that DST doesn’t actually help conserve energy. If anything, it appears to cost us more energy and money. In Indiana, for example, the time change led to a 4 percent increase in electricity use.

As mentioned, not all states in the United States follow DST. Hawaii and Arizona have opted out of observing daylight saving time. Isn’t it time for other states to follow their lead and stop deviating from standard time?

Although the decision would result in less daylight during the spring and summer months, it would likely help save many lives and tens of millions of dollars annually by avoiding the disruptions caused by the time change.

More at www.theepochtimes.com

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Comments (5)

Tom

March 14, 2024 at 3:27 pm | #

Negatives outweigh the positives…that’s why government loves it and will never change it.

Reply
Michael

March 14, 2024 at 3:40 pm | #

It seems the research only focused on changing the clocks in the Spring. Would the research have shown a similar pattern when the clocks were set back in to autumn?

Reply
Alan Webb

March 14, 2024 at 6:26 pm | #

Probably not. That’s when we get an extra hour sleep. But I would like to see if there have been any studies dealing with the change to standard time.

Reply
JaKo

March 15, 2024 at 3:44 am | #

This WWI relic is still around – Kaiser is long gone and we still have adjust our bio-clocks!
Sickening…
Cheers, JaKo

Reply
Alan

March 15, 2024 at 3:23 pm | #

The most pointless activity every created.

Reply