Ritual of moving clocks up one hour is here as Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday

ALBANY — The biannual time adjustment is here again, with clocks “springing forward” at 2 a.m. Sunday as Daylight Saving Time goes into effect.

Having more daylight time after school and after daytime jobs end — sunset Saturday is at 6:42 p.m., but will be at 7:42 p.m. Sunday — is seen as a benefit, but it also means most people in Georgia will start their day an hour earlier than they have been since early last November. That is a significant adjustment that can have adverse effects in terms of sleep and performance.

In a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health blog on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, Claire Caruso, Ph.D and RN, says it can take a week for a person’s body to adjust to a new time schedule for sleeping, eating and other activities. During that adjustment period, an individual can have trouble with his or her sleep cycle, which can lead to sleep deprivation, poor performance and a higher risk for making mistakes, including while driving.

At least one study also indicates the health impact can be severe. In 2014, the American College of Cardiology said a large study found that the number of heart attacks increases 25 percent on the Monday after Daylight Saving Time begins compared to other Mondays in the year.

The change back to Standard Time in November has an opposite effect, the study found, with heart attacks dropping 21 percent on the Tuesday after the hour is gained back. Researchers said they did not know why the autumn drop occurred on a Tuesday instead of a Monday.

“What’s interesting is that the total number of heart attacks didn’t change the week after Daylight Saving Time,” Dr. Amneet Sandhu, a cardiology fellow at the University of Colorado in Denver and lead investigator of the study, said in a news release when the study was announced. “But these events were much more frequent the Monday after the spring time change and then tapered off over the other days of the week. It may mean that people who are already vulnerable to heart disease may be at greater risk right after sudden time changes.”

Sandhu said that heart attacks, which historically occur most often on Monday mornings, varied insignificantly on Mondays, but when his team compared admissions at non-federal Michigan hospitals for admissions on the Mondays immediately before and after the change to DST over a four-year period, they found a consistent 34 percent increase in heart attacks from one week to the next. The average 93 heart attacks the Monday before DST jumped to an average of 125 the Monday after the start of Daylight Saving Time.

The study took place Jan. 1, 2010, through Sept. 15, 2015, and reviewed more than 42,000 admissions to non-federal Michigan hospitals. There was no difference in totals for the week as a whole before and after time changes in the spring and fall, but the hospitals’ average of 32 admissions increased to 40 on the Monday after DST started.

Researchers say they had some ideas why the spike occurs, but the more immediate takeaway was that hospitals should be staffed for a spike in coronary episodes on the first Monday after DST starts.

“Perhaps the reason we see more heart attacks on Monday mornings is a combination of factors, including the stress of starting a new work week and inherent changes in our sleep-wake cycle,” Sandhu said. “With Daylight Saving Time, all of this is compounded by one less hour of sleep.

“… We know from previous studies that a lack of sleep can trigger heart attacks, but we don’t have a good understanding of why people are so sensitive to changes in sleep-wake cycles. Our study suggests that sudden, even small changes in sleep could have detrimental effects.”

Whatever the reason, he said, “If we can identify days when there may be surges in heart attacks, we can be ready to better care for our patients.”

Sandhu said it would be interesting to compare the findings against heart attack trends in Hawaii and Arizona, which do not have DST, and that more research is needed to better understand the role of circadian rhythms on heart health.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has suggested that those who feel the impact of the biannual time changes ease into it by moving their schedules up for going to bed, getting up and eating by 15-20 minutes per day for the three days leading into the start of DST. Another suggestion is to get out in bright sunlight early Sunday morning to help “reset” the body’s clock.

Academy officials said it is important for people to stick to a Sunday-night bedtime that will allow them to be well rested Monday. That’s especially true given that sunrise will also be an hour later, which means it will be darker when children are walking to school or waiting for the bus. Sunrise Friday in Albany was at 6:53 a.m., but it will be at 7:50 a.m. Monday.

Time change also is a good time to take care of a small, yet potentially lifesaving, detail at home — placing fresh batteries in fire and carbon monoxide detectors. It’s also a good time to make sure your home fire extinguisher is charged. With the deaths of an elderly couple in Rabun County last Sunday in a house fire that state fire investigators said appeared to have started in the kitchen area, there have been 34 fire-related deaths in Georgia this year.

Standard Time will return at 2 a.m. Nov. 5.