Have you recovered yet? “From what?” you ask. Daylight Saving Time. That pesky time change that forced us to lose one hour of sleep over the weekend. Technically, all that happens is an hour of daylight moves from morning to evening, giving us those long summer nights. It sounds good in theory, but many of us are still dragging – me included. Monday was rough, having lost an hour of sleep then driving to work in the dark.
How the time change affects you depends upon your own personal health, sleep habits and lifestyle. But all that tinkering around with our physical clocks puts our internal clocks out of sync with our current day/night cycle. According to WebMD, “In general, losing an hour in the spring is more difficult to adjust to than gaining an hour in the fall.”
And don’t even get me started on the pets. No matter which way the clock moves, pets think we’re messing with breakfast as part of some sort of fiendish plot.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 28 states have active legislation in support of keeping daylight saving time all year. Daylight Saving Time lovers say we need to make it the new norm because less darkness means less crime, fewer car crashes and less energy used. According to University of Washington Law Professor Steve Calandrillo, who testified at congressional hearings on daylight saving time, “Any small, increased risk that evening sunshine creates is dwarfed by the benefits of living life during the early evening in more sunshine.”
However, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine believes permanent transition to Daylight Saving Time “disrupts the natural seasonal adjustment of the human clock due to the effect of the late-evening light on the circadian rhythm.”
But overall, most health experts agree that settling into daylight saving time or standard time is better than turning the clocks back and forth. We just gotta pick something and stick with it. So, we’ll see where it goes. In the meantime, Katie and Mojito are not speaking to me about the change in breakfast time. Sami, however, knows that just by getting along gets you treats. So just be like Sami. Treats will get you through anything, even if breakfast is late.
Lynne Conlan is executive director of the South Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce. Call her at 813-634-5111, or email lynne@southhillschamber.com.