Daylight-saving time is literally killing us

Daylight-saving time is literally killing usDaylight-saving time is literally killing usDaylight-saving time is a killer.The annual ritual in which we gain an hour of evening light by pushing the clocks forward may seem like a harmless shift. But each year, on the Monday after the springtime switch,hospitals report a 24% spikein heart attack visits around the country.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreJust a coincidence? Probably not. Doctors see the opposite trend in the fall The day after we turn back the clocks, heart attack visits drop 21% as people enjoy a little extra pillow time.Thats how fragile and susceptible your body is to even just one hour of lost sleep, sleep expert Matthew Walker, author ofHow We Sleep, previously told Business Insider.The reason that springing the clocks forward can kill us comes down to interrupted sleep schedules. This Sunday, March 10, instead o f the clock turning from 159 to 200 a.m. as usual, it will tick to 300 a.m. instead.For those of us who will be asleep in bed,researchers estimatewell all deprive ourselves of an extra 40 minutes of sleep because of the clock change. And night-shift workers will only get paid for seven hours of work instead of the usual eight, according tofederal law.Walker said daylight-saving time (DST) is a kind of global experiment we perform twice a year. And the results show just how sensitive our bodies are to the whims of changing schedules In the fall, the shift is a blessing, and in the spring, its a fatal curse.In addition to the tragic heart-attack trend, which lasts about a day,researchersestimate that car crashes caused by drivers who were sleepy after clocks changed likely cost an 30 extra people in the US their lives over the nine-year period from 2002-2011.The brain, by way of attention lapses and micro-sleeps, is just as sensitive as the heart to very small perturbations of sleep, Walker explains in his book.The problems dont stop there. DST also causes more reports ofinjuries at work, morestrokes, and maylead to a temporary increase in suicides. Our bodies may not fully recover from the springtime bumpfor weeks.Why we save daylight for the later hours of the dayDaylight-saving time was originally concocted as a way to save energy in the evening, and wasimplemented during World War Iin Germany. But more recent research suggests itsprobably not saving us any megawattsof power at all. There is some evidence, however, that extra evening light canreduce crimeandincrease the time people spend exercising, at least in certain climates.Worldwide, fewer thanhalf of all countriesparticipate in this biannual clock-changing ritual.Not everyone in the US follows it either. Hawaii and Arizona ignore DST, since it makes less sense to shift the clocks when you live near the equator, where the sun rises and sets at roughly the same time every day.Residents and lawmakers inCal iforniaandFloridaare also trying to ditch the switch. Voters in the Golden State opted to get rid of the annual clock change in the 2018 midterm elections, and Florida lawmakers enacted the Sunshine Protection Act aimed at doing the same thing last March.Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, and Idaho are allangling to do the same,with proposed legislation in the works. But the shift to a permanent daylight-saving time plan isnt something states can decide for themselves the measuresrequire a green light from Congressin order to take effect, something both California and Florida have yet to receive.Meanwhile, the tradition inevitably costs some people their lives. So while you might enjoy the extra daylight next week, be mindful about your heart and your driving.This article first appeared in Business Insider.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people