Reconsidering Daylight Saving Time

September 24, 8:56 PMSF Fitness ExaminerJim Evans

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 Researchers at Michigan State University have concluded that Daylight Saving Time adversely affects sleep quantity and leads to both a higher incidence of workplace-related injuries and a higher severity of injuries on the job.

Daylight Saving Time was originally proposed by Benjamin Franklin to “match the waking activity phase of the human sleep/wake cycle with the daylight phase of the Earth’s rotation cycle,” and it would seem that this would be beneficial to human activity – and it IS in some respects. However, there are also some negative consequences according to a new study by researchers Christopher M. Barnes and David T. Wagner.

Their study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology 2009 (Vol. 94, No. 5, 1305-1317), found that most people typically to go to sleep within 1–2 hours of 11:00 P.M. and, on average, they will experience the same sleep tendency on Saturdays immediately preceding the Daylight Saving clock changes as they do throughout the rest of the year. However, when Daylight Saving is implemented, the time they would normally begin waking up is advanced by 1 hr, and when Daylight Saving is ended, the time they would normally begin waking up is delayed by 1 hr. The authors, therefore, contend that in comparison with days in which no time change occurs, time advance days will lead to lower quantities of sleep, and time delay days will lead to higher quantities of sleep.

In short, they found that time changes intended to align waking activity with daylight periods have negative side effects on organizations. Following such time changes, employees slept 40 minutes less, had 5.7% more workplace injuries, and lost 67.6% more work days because of injuries than on days when the time was not advanced. In contrast, time delays did not have any significant effects on sleep, injury frequency, or injury severity. In other words, implementing Daylight Saving Time costs employees sleep and injuries.

 Daylight Saving Time may save daylight but has its costs.

Source: Journal of Applied Psychology (http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/apl9451317.pdf)