Daylight Saving Time This Weekend
By: Ny Lynn Nichols
Updated: March 9, 2012
This Sunday will be the start of Daylight Saving Time.
We will set our clocks ahead one hour to allow us more light through the spring, summer and fall.
Experts say, for some, losing an hour is harder than gaining an hour.
"Most of us are pretty sleep deprived to start with and now your losing another hour," says Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of Northwestern University's Sleep Disorders Center.
Doctors say the switch is a bit more difficult for night owls, while early risers.. will spend an extra hour in the dark.
Studies have shown an increase in traffic and work place accidents on the Monday after the switch to Daylight Saving Time, and a report published in the 2009 New England Journal of Medicine documented a 5-percent increase in the number of heart attacks three days after the March time change.
Doctors say the most difficult clock to reset is our internal time piece.
"There are clocks in all your body parts, and all your organs as well, so it's not just that you get tired...but in-fact the rest of you hormones are altered, your metabolism is altered, so it's really not just a brain phenomenon, it's an entire body phenomenon," explains Dr. Zee.
We will set our clocks ahead one hour to allow us more light through the spring, summer and fall.
Experts say, for some, losing an hour is harder than gaining an hour.
"Most of us are pretty sleep deprived to start with and now your losing another hour," says Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of Northwestern University's Sleep Disorders Center.
Doctors say the switch is a bit more difficult for night owls, while early risers.. will spend an extra hour in the dark.
Studies have shown an increase in traffic and work place accidents on the Monday after the switch to Daylight Saving Time, and a report published in the 2009 New England Journal of Medicine documented a 5-percent increase in the number of heart attacks three days after the March time change.
Doctors say the most difficult clock to reset is our internal time piece.
"There are clocks in all your body parts, and all your organs as well, so it's not just that you get tired...but in-fact the rest of you hormones are altered, your metabolism is altered, so it's really not just a brain phenomenon, it's an entire body phenomenon," explains Dr. Zee.
