How daylight saving time poses a host of health concerns, according to a neurologist

As people in the U.S. prepare to turn their clocks ahead one hour in mid-March, I find myself bracing for the annual ritual of media stories about the disruptions to daily routines caused by switching from standard time to daylight saving time.

About a third of Americans say they don't look forward to these twice-yearly time changes. An overwhelming 63 percent to 16 percent majority would like to eliminate them completely.

But the effects go beyond simple inconvenience. Researchers are discovering that "springing ahead" each March is connected with serious negative health effects.

I'm a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and the director of our sleep division. In a 2020 commentary for the journal JAMA Neurology, my co-authors and I reviewed the evidence linking the annual transition to daylight saving time to increased strokes, heart attacks and teen sleep deprivation.

Based on an extensive body of research, my colleagues and I believe that the science establishing these links is strong and that the evidence makes a good case for adopting permanent standard time nationwide – as I testified at a recent Congressional hearing...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/nation/how-daylight-saving-time-poses-a-host-of-health-concerns-according-to-a-neurologist