Getting ClockedSydney Spiesel talks with readers about daylight-saving time and circadian rhythms.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel was online at Washingtpost.com on Thursday, Nov. 1, to chat about daylight-saving time and how time changes affect the body's circadian rhythms. An unedited transcript of the chat follows.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Hi—am I the only person looking forward to the fall time change?

PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...SINGLE PAGE

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

_______________________

Anonymous: Dr. Spiesel, if a one-hour shift is bad for us, what does this mean for people at high latitudes? If I recall, Fairbanks, Alaska, loses or gains something like 15 minutes of daylight per day around the equinoxes.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: The question hasn't ever been looked at in a formal way to my knowledge, but last year (for an unknown reason which I certainly don't regret) my wife and I took a long weekend in Iceland in January (daybreak maybe 10:30 a.m.; dusk maybe 4 p.m.), which certainly has a high latitude and I noted a lot of local adaptations—lights on all the time and everyone seemed to be doing well with it.

_______________________

Frankford, W.Va.: Some states have done away with this antiquated idea of "saving time." Are we the only country in the world that practices this insanity ?

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Not at all—actually about a quarter of the worlds population—that is, currently about 1.6 billion people—are covered by DST. But you're right—no time is actually "saved" ... it should properly be called Daylight Shifted Time, since DST just shifts an hour of daylight in the morning to the evening.

_______________________

Rockville, Md.: Thanks for writing about this. I definitely have the most trouble waking up this time of the year, before "falling back," because the sun rises so late. Now that daylight savings time has been pushed back even more, waking up has gotten much more difficult. Just a gripe to those who think that more and more daylight savings time is necessarily a good thing.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: My trick is to be so chronically behind in my sleep that "little" perturbations like DST don't have that much effect, but it's not a method I'd recommend

_______________________

My Clock's Been Messed Up All Week: Last Sunday, the internal clock on our bedroom VCR switched on the traditional date, so now when I wake up in the middle of the night I have to do a conversion to the correct time to decide whether or not to get up. Plus, trying to remember where the remote is keeps me from falling back asleep.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Added evidence that the chronobiology researchers in Germany were right—though their work suggests that for most people the spring change to DST has more effect—it certainly does for me!

_______________________

Washington Resident Vacationing in Japan: As someone who is visiting his brother in Okinawa from the East Coast, I find this topic laughable. I've been in Japan four days and have almost adjusted my sleeping schedule. I still do feel a little woozy, but the time difference is 13 hours. Are there really people so regimented in their bedtime and eating schedule that they can't stay up one hour later or go to bed one hour earlier to minimize a one hour difference? My apologies to those people who have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder or other mental illness that might make the time change cause understandable angst, but the rest of us easily should handle one hour.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Have you been out in the sun ... I find that when I travel (not nearly enough, by the way) exposure to local daylight really helps to reset my internal clock quickly. Interestingly, I found myself not very much affected by a brief trip to Iceland in January (where there's not much daylight to speak of) and found my clock quickly reset by a summer trip to Nice in France (where the light is very bright and clear) but had a terrible time once on a gloomy trip overcast London.

By the way, I feel the need to defend people whose inner clocks just—probably for biological reasons—just don't adapt as readily as yours does.

_______________________

Indianapolis: Actually, having been one of the few states not to participate in Daylight Savings Time, Indiana has actually made itself somewhat less antiquated by getting on the same time program as our neighbors when we started DST this year. I believe Arizona is the only state left that does not implement DST.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Yes—it's a shame that a great opportunity for research using an "experiment in nature" was lost when Indiana went to DST—it would have been great to compare the degree to which our internal circadian clock is reset by the coming of dawn (as compared to the effect of the local "social" clock, artificially manipulated by DST) by comparing the circadian rhythms of Hoosiers and Illinoisians (or whatever the proper word is) ... alas, no longer possible: a great opportunity lost! I'm not sure, but I think even Arizona has now bought in to DST.

PRINTE-MAILRECOMMEND...RSS

FacebookMySpace Mixx Digg Reddit del.icio.us Furl Ma.gnolia SphereStumbleUponCLOSE

SPONSORED CONTENT

• The Bearded Mom
  Prudie counsels a reader whose mother's facial hair is getting out of control—and other advice seekers.
  Nov. 9, 2009
• The Closeted Groom
  Prudie dispenses advice about a fiancé who has a bisexual past—and counsels other advice seekers.
  Nov. 2, 2009
• Say Beddy-Bye-Bye
  Prudie counsels a husband-to-be whose bride wants her own bedroom—and other advice seekers.
  Oct. 26, 2009
• Search for more Chat Room, The articles
• Subscribe to the Chat Room, The RSS feed
• View our complete Chat Room, The archive