Getting ClockedSydney Spiesel talks with readers about daylight-saving time and circadian rhythms.
Updated Thursday, Nov. 1, 2007, at 5:49 PM ETDr. 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.
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DST just shifts an hour of daylight in the morning to the evening: I think you're mixed up—as of Sunday morning, we will be gaining an hour of daylight in the morning, resulting in the sun setting earlier in the afternoon.
Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Yes—quite right ... did I say it incorrectly? As we are closing down DST and going to Standard Time, the shift goes in the opposite direction: an hour in the evening shifts to morning.
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Richmond, Va.: This transition is the easier because we don't lose an hour of sleep, we gain one—and we all need more sleep. That first Monday after the fall back is so beautiful, because I wake up easily, feeling rested. It's the only time all year that happens, and it fades a little each day, lasting about a week.
Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Just the way I feel!
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Washington: "Am I the only person looking forward to the fall time change?" I am loathing the time change—I hate going to work in the dark and leaving work in the dark ... pretty awful to never see daylight besides out my office window five days a week for months out of the year. Why do you like it so much, are you a vampire?
Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Yes—that's one of the problems we share as a result of living in a higher latitude, but that delicious extra hour of sleep on the night of the Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time shift: delicious!
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Washington: Dr. Spiesel—thank you for hosting this chat. I've never worried about or been affected by the time change, but this year, I have a 9-month-old to worry about! She likes to wake up at 6:15 a.m. How do I keep her from waking at 5:15 a.m. as a result of turning the clock back this weekend? We've been trying to keep her up a little later all week long (in 10 minute increments) but it's getting harder and harder to do as she's quite exhausted by 7:30 p.m. Any tips you can provide will be appreciated! Thanks in advance!
Dr. Sydney Spiesel: I wish I had a good answer for this one ... my sense is that young children's circadian clocks are mostly—perhaps exclusively—driven by light cycles and not at all by social cues (like alarm clocks or parents trying to reset the clock). Having said what I think doesn't work, I am sad that I have no good advice for something that does work.
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Alexandria, Va.: Wouldn't all of the problems be solved if we adopted the proposal of using computerized clocks that made sure the sunrise was at exactly the same time every day?
Dr. Sydney Spiesel: ... or not using clocks at all and just living by the sun! Sadly, that's what vacations are about, but I've had a hard time applying that plan to workdays.
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Germany: The most time-consuming, energy wasting, stupid thing ever seen. Millions of hand-made clock changes, rails and airplane changes, psychological influence on school kids. The EU "tries" to stop it but... someone seems to gain from this non-sense?!
Dr. Sydney Spiesel: The reported gains (but I don't know if any cost-benefit analysis has ever been done) are these: fewer car accidents in summer with DST—evening driving times are spread over a longer time and are more bunched together than in the morning is one. Another (actively pushed by the recreation industry) is the notion that we shouldn't "waste" daylight when we are driving to work or school, but should instead devote it to what is important: play!
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New Jersey: I've always thought that being in a funk for more than a day because of Daylight Savings (or a one-hour time difference while traveling) is lame. What about the days where you get one hour more sleep because your alarm didn't go off? Or one hour less because your dogs woke you up early? Are you in a funk for the rest of the day because of that? Your article seems to imply that the people truly affected by it are affected for the whole of daylight savings time, but everyone I know just complains about it for about a week!
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