On Sunday, as most of the nation shifts to Daylight Saving Time, the approximately 85 million adults in the United States who already experience chronic sleep deprivation stand to lose another hour of sleep, exacerbating what is already a national health crisis, said Dr. Nirupam Singh, a sleep medicine specialist at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa.
While many embrace the springtime change that moves clocks forward by an hour, sacrificing daylight in the early morning for more of it in the evening, it can have immediate ripple effects on our sleep patterns and thus our safety, Singh said.
The number of motor vehicle accidents, for instance, has been shown to spike by 6% during the workweek immediately after the spring time shift, he noted. “Sleepy driving is drunk driving,” he said.
Singh, who is also a pulmonary critical care specialist, said sleep deprivation in general affects every realm of the body and is associated with heart disease, blood sugar, cholesterol, strokes and mental health issues such as depression.
“Sleep deprivation is a public health crisis, and this one day kind of makes it worse,” he said.
“But maybe people can use this as something that helps them get more sleep in general going forward,” Singh said.
The Kaiser sleep specialist suggested people start going to bed and waking earlier by 15 minute increments in the days leading up to the one-hour time shift forward, which is scheduled for 2 a.m. Sunday.
When you wake up, try to expose yourself to early morning light to begin shifting your body clock, he said. Other suggestions include keeping TV and phone screens out of the bedroom and avoiding late meals — both of which can disrupt bedtime routines.
“Will power is very hard, but you just have to set up systems in place that allow you to do that,” he said. “So maybe you set up a system in place where your WiFi goes out a half hour or hour sooner for the whole day, for the whole family, so everybody is sleeping better.”
Singh said such steps to optimize sleep can have huge impacts on long-term health and wellness.
Not everybody is affected equally by Daylight Saving Time; the impact depends on a person’s chronobiology, or body clock, he said, adding that some people are night owls while others are morning people.
Adolescents, for example, naturally have a delayed sleep phase, “meaning that you’re living in California but your body clock is somewhere in Hawaii.”
The body clock changes with age. Babies start out as “morning people,” waking up very early. As kids get older and reach adolescence, they become night owls.
“And as we become seniors, most seniors are once again, morning people,” he said. But screens have changed our circadian rhythms.
“The artificial light pushes the body clock towards Hawaii,” Singh said. “Light is one of the most potent things we have…Morning light will push you towards the East Coast.”
That’s why exposure to morning light after the time shift Sunday will help your body adjust and avoid what feels like jet lag, he said.
For those who are really having trouble sleeping sooner, Singh recommended a “very low dose” of melatonin, between half a milligram and one milligram.
“Preferably half a milligram taken around 6 or 7 p.m. to help you adjust your body clock,” he said.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.
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