Random Thoughts: Daylight Savings Time

Hello!

Today I am taking a break from books and writing to talk about Daylight Savings. *pulls out a mug of hot chocolate*

I have always gotten confused when people say “We lose an hour.” or “We gain an hour.” This has always confused me because we have 24 hours in a day and that never changes. After many years of pondering over this, I think I finally have it figured out. When Daylight Savings happens in November, it’s quite nice. You get an extra hour to sleep and do stuff. Not a huge deal. In March, Daylight Savings involves sleepiness, caffeine, and more daylight in the evening. This one is always a lot harder to adjust to.

There are studies that have found heart attacks to happen more often on the Monday after Daylight Savings in March. Car accidents, suicide, and strokes have also been linked to it. These are prime examples for why sleep is so important and how it affects your health.

Why does this happen? Daylight Savings time throws off your circadian rhythm. Your circadian rhythm is basically your body’s internal clock. An example is sleeping in the night and being awake in the day. Daylight Savings Time -both in the fall and spring- throw your circadian rhythm out of wack.

Daylight Savings Time shows us how important sleep is. The average amount of sleep needed is 7-9 hours. For teenagers, it’s around 9 hours. The average time a school starts is 8:00. Lets say a student needs to wake up 1 hour before school. If a student had to wake up at 7:00, in order to get 9 hours of sleep they would need to go to bed at 10:00. Speaking from experience, I can assure you this isn’t happening.

Where was I going with this? *shuffles papers* In other words, Daylight Savings Time impacts sleep. Sleep is very important and many teenagers don’t get enough sleep. I guess that’s all for now.

Until next time!

-Hannah

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