(Photo Credit: MGN)

Turning the clocks back can affect your health

Daylight Savings Time ends this weekend, November 3 at 2:00 in the morning. Many people dread the arrival of darkness early in the evening. But how does it really affect the body?

Many sleep scientists are calling for abolishing Daylight Savings Time because of its negative effects on sleep cycles and overall health, AP News reported. Longer, darker days also increase the risk of depression in people prone to Seasonal Affective Disorder, a form of depression caused by lack of sunlight. But Daylight Savings Time might also have a link to an unexpected health crisis: heart attacks.

“It has also been shown that blood tends to clot more quickly in the morning. These changes underlie evidence that heart attacks are more common in general in the morning, and may explain studies showing that rates increase slightly on Mondays after clocks are moved forward in the spring, when people typically rise an hour earlier than normal,” AP News reported. “That increased risk associated with the time change is mainly in people already vulnerable because of existing heart disease, said Barry Franklin, director of preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation at Beaumont Health hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan.”

Daylight Savings Time was established a century ago to improve energy savings, according to the AP. However, modern research has not found a decrease in energy use during the lighter season.