Sleep Experts Call for End of Daylight Saving Time

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has called for the end of Daylight Savings Time. In a statement featured in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the AASM proposed the country should abolish seasonal time changes in favor of a “fixed, national, year-round standard time.”

“An abundance of accumulated evidence indicates that the acute transition from standard time to daylight saving time incurs significant public health and safety risks, including increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events, mood disorders, and motor vehicle crashes,” the Academy wrote in its statement.

In their statement, the AASM noted that research published in May in Sleep found a 18% increase in medical errors related to mistakes during the spring forward period. The statement did acknowledge that more research is needed to confirm the long-term effects of Daylight Savings Time.

Since the 19th century, experts have historically claimed that having Daylight Savings Time benefits society by extending daylight and sun hours and saving energy costs. But for decades many others have called those benefits into question, according to CNET.

Daylight Savings Time went into practice nationally in 1966.

“Permanent, year-round standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle,” Mayo Clinic Sleep Specialist M. Adeel Rishi and lead author on the AASM report said in an accompanying statement. “Daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body’s natural rhythm.”

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