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A better option: Sleep experts advocate for permanent standard time over daylight saving time

Posted at 10:19 PM, Mar 16, 2022
and last updated 2022-03-17 14:59:33-04

OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Lawmakers on both a national level and state level are considering making daylight saving time permanent, but sleep experts say there's a better option.

Springing forward one hour may not seem like much, but it can have a big impact on our health according to Dr. Stanley Thomas, a pulmonary and sleep expert with CHI Health.

"Everything from increased risk of heart attack, increased risk of strokes, increased hospitalization from people going in for atrial fibrillation, increasedmood disorder, increased traffic accidents and that’s just kind of a summary off the top of my head when you force people to get up an hour earlier," Thomas said.

Thomas says getting rid of the semiannual time change, like what's being, is a good idea. But rather than make daylight saving time permanent, it would be even better to permanently switch to standard time.

"If we’re teasing hairs here. We want the least amount of light at night and the most amount of light in the morning," Thomas said. "I think standard time does that.”

A lot of people enjoy a couple of extra hours of sunshine after work, but sleep experts across the country say daylight saving time can disrupt our circadian rhythm.

"The problem is it’s really dark in the mornings," said Dr. Douglas Kirsch, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "If you think about biology, our basic biology is regulated by the fact that we wake up when we get a lot of light and we should be going to bed when it gets dark.”

The AAMS has called for the end of daylight saving time and put out an official statementencouraging the House to take health ramifications into consideration.

Thomas says eventually we would get used to the time change should it become permanent, but there's still a better option.

"We can’t speak for the economic part of things. But strictly from the health and physiological side of things, it’s pretty evident that it’s to our benefit to kind of do away with [daylight saving time]."

While we wait to see daylight saving time becomes permanent, the experts say there are some things we can do to help our bodies adjust to the new schedule.

They encourage people to avoid staying up late experts and to turn off their screens to limit the light we're seeing at night.

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