End of Daylight Saving Time Can Affect Your Health

The end of Daylight Saving Time is just a few days away, mornings will get lighter and evenings will get darker, but the time change isn’t always an easy transition for our bodies.

Setting your clock back one hour, means gaining one hour of sleep, but that extra hour in bed can have adverse affects on our health. Medical Director at the Zanesville-Muskingum County Health Department, Dr. Vicki Whitacre, said shifting to standard daylight time will mostly affect our 24-hour natural cycle– or circadian rhythm.

“Your body is set at whatever time clock you’ve been on, and then all of sudden you’re going to move it one hour and your body won’t make the change immediately,” Whitacre said.

Whitacre said it could take a few days or up to a week for some people to adapt to the time change. She recommended not staying up late the night before, and also explained some other tips to help make the transition less painful.

“When you first wake up with the time change, try to get as much light as you can, that sorta helps wake up your body, and switch your own internal rhythm, and when you’re going to bed, do not expose yourself to a lot of light right before you’re going to bed, and don’t engage in activities that are going to stimulate your brain,” Whitacre said.

Whitacre said the time change can also have an affect on your child’s sleep patterns, she suggested putting them to bed earlier over the next few days.