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.

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Dr. Sydney Spiesel: The chronobiologists who studied the problem only noted that the spring time change disconnects dawn as a setting agent for our internal clock and that the fall DST to ST transition seems to restore it. Maybe disconnecting dawn as the setting mechanism allows social clock setting to have more power.

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Arlington, Va.: Can you recommend a certain side lamp I can use to simulate sunlight? I would like to place the side lamp near my computer while at work, so I need something small. Thanks.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: I've seen some brand advertised, but I don't know of any data suggesting that they work (for most people ... there is additional literature about the people who suffer from "SAD"—Seasonal Affective Disorder) for most of us and better than any old light source.

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Herndon, Va.: Why does it take me a week to recover from the time change? I'm tired, out of sorts, generally unhappy and it lasts a week.

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: I guess that's just the time for your circadian clock to reset—and when it's out of sync with the external "social" clock your body is somehow aware and made uncomfortable by the disharmony

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Raleigh, N.C.: Every six months or so when the time changes everyone in my office, including me, complain about how whacked-out we feel for a good week afterward. At home we mark it as the beginning of the "Mean Season," which just gets worse after the holidays and doesn't let up until March. What can we do to minimize the impacts?

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: I've sort of noticed that, too, but the phenomenon may be bigger than just adaptation to time change on the clock. In winter (at least where the weather becomes cold) there is less opportunity for casual outdoor social interaction and perhaps that plays a part. Maybe as the days become much shorter it's no longer possible to reconcile the social clock with our internal circadian clock and that affects us badly. Maybe whatever it is that affects people with Seasonal Affective Disorder when they have inadequate daylight exposure during the winter months affects all of us, just to a much less noticeable degree.

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Toronto: I wonder if I have a screwed up circadian rhythm—I get very cold with a tired feeling in early evening and then warm up suddenly between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. Is that unusual?

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: I don't really know how common that is. Lots of people have a late morning low and we used to call late afternoon "the arsenic hour" as our kids turned into, well, we'll let that pass. I don't know how your late evening experience relates to that

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South Carolina: I believe DST is not merely mass delusion but can be dangerous for those on medications that need to be taken at particular times. What do hospitals do with patients? As a type 1 diabetic, shifting my schedule twice a year to correspond with society, work, etc. is more than a simple inconvenience. Why can't those who wish more daylight after work/school simply go earlier and leave the rest of us alone?

Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Most medications don't need to be taken at precise intervals (some do), so hospital care isn't much of a worry at the moment of transition. I doubt that it's really dangerous for the great, great majority of patients. But I agree that for people like type 1 diabetes the time change can be a real problem, at least until your body adapts.

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Dr. Sydney Spiesel: Oops, must run ... my clock is calling me. Good luck everyone with the time change!

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