It’s a bit dramatic, but according to recent studies, it can be true. However, there are ways to avoid it…
The Monday after we spring ahead for Daylight Saving Time is the worst Monday of the year for accidents. Observing Daylight Saving Time year-round would prevent 195 motor vehicle deaths and 171 pedestrian fatalities.
Daylight saving time and ‘Springing Ahead’ is bad for your health. That’s according to a University of Alabama at Birmingham Professor. He says, “The Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead one hour is associated with a 10 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack. The opposite is true when falling back in October. Exactly why this happens is not known but there are several theories. Sleep deprivation, the body’s circadian clock and immune responses all can come into play when considering reasons that changing the time by an hour can be detrimental to someone’s health.”
Possible solutions:
Wake up 30 minutes earlier on Saturday and Sunday in preparation for the early start on Monday. Eat a good breakfast and exercise in the morning sunlight. Doing all of this will help reset both the central, or master, clock in the brain that reacts to changes in light/dark cycles, and the peripheral clocks — the ones everywhere else including the one in the heart — that react to food intake and physical activity. This will enable your body to naturally synch with the change in the environment, which may make Monday a little easier and less stressful.
Or
Hope and pray we live until Wednesday, and not have to worry about it for another year.
Or
Move to Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands where they don’t observe daylight saving time.
Joel has successfully survived every time change of his life so far! He attributes his survival to his love of chasing ping pong balls on a windy cruise ship.