How does the time change affect our health?

J4R in for Joanne Vrakis.

This Sunday morning, she'll be back with you next week.

Hey, if you're feeling a little groggy this morning, you're not alone, and you have a very

good reason.

Daylight saving time kicked in last night, and most of us lost an hour of sleep.

Sounds like a small thing, but the science may say otherwise.

Dr. Arsenio Piaz, executive director of the Canadian Sleeped Society, is here to tell

us what that lost hour actually does to our bodies.

Good morning, Dr. Piaz.

Good morning, and I am definitely feeling groggy also.

You are, huh?

See, we've been joking about it all morning, and I was wondering how significant is this

really?

Is it just, is it a psychological phenomenon, or are we really feeling it?

Oh, no, we're really feeling it, because what happens is that when we do this daylight

saving times, you've got your brain and your body saying, hey, it's time to be asleep,

but you've got your alarm clock saying, hey, it's time to be awake.

So it's actually forcing you to be up and about and punching before your brain and your

body are ready.

And we know that it affects all sorts of aspects of health.

I mean, you can see this even the first week after daylight saving times, you see more

traffic accidents, more medical accidents, more medical errors, more heart attacks, you

know.

And so there's almost no system in the body that's not affected by sleep.

But this change, this artificial change, I describe it to people as social jet lag.

It's that same feeling of jet lag, but everyone gets it all at once.

So it's an actual physiological condition that we're feeling and not just a way of us

saying, well, we know we lost an hour of sleep last night, so that makes us tired in

the abstract.

It's very physiological.

You've got, we have an internal clock, you know, that's the kind of, the circadian clock

that kind of helps to set when your blood pressure rises, when your immune system starts

working, when your body and your brain are really preparing themselves for your day.

And that, it just throws it off, you know, the most important thing is really daylight in

the morning.

That's where we get to everything going.

But now, for example, with daylight saving, you're up in darkness, you know, it comes

frozen off.

So you have less light in the morning when you really need it, but more light at the end

of the day, which for a lot of people means that they're up later, but they don't sleep

any longer.

You see, so you end up losing sleep that way.

It's really amazing how the body responds to that as well.

I would assume that this condition is even worse or even more serious for people who are

already struggling with insomnia.

Absolutely.

And we know that any number of Canadians struggle with insomnia.

I think it's like 40, depending on how you look at it, up to half of Canadians have trouble

sleeping.

But then, for example, when you look at older adults, even more than 60% of trouble sleeping,

and then you think of things like teenagers, you know, for example, you know, if you have

teenagers in your life, you know that they will be very up very late normally, and then

want to get up later in this makes it even harder for them.

To get back on track, I know that eventually most people do, but let's say you want to

do it a little more quickly, let's say within the week, what are some practical tips

that I'll help you get there?

Yeah.

So one thing people can do is for a few days before the time change, try to shift your

bedtime, maybe 15 to 20 minutes earlier, for a few nights before the shift to daylight

savings, that way it's slightly more gradual change than the other you can do is even don't

go to set your clock ahead an hour before you go to sleep, and go to bed at your normal

time.

So you're kind of, you're adjusting for it on the front end.

And then of course, that next day, try and head outside and get some sun, some early

sunlight as soon as you're able, because that will help to regulate your morning routine,

also helps to regulate that internal clock a bit.

And for a lot of people, they're going to have to get a lot of, you know, good sleep

on that Sunday to really prepare for the week, but daylight is the important thing there.

Right.

So you would do, I guess you could put a lot of practices and motions the same way you

would if you were coming back from a vacation on the other side of the world, right?

Exactly.

There's been growing debate about whether we should just do away with the daylight saving

time altogether.

Where do you stand from?

A medical standpoint on that.

Yeah, I think the thing that would align best with the natural rhythms of the brain

and the body and that science support is to have permanent standard time.

Right.

Right.

Unfortunately, what's happening is we don't have a national consensus on this.

And there's been, for example, in BC, the move to make daylight saving time permanent.

It's great to not have the shifting, but it's the wrong direction.

Each time I think the science supports permanent standard time, not permanent daylight saving

time.

You don't have a national consensus and that can become problematic.

You can already imagine if you have different times, even within two provinces right next

each other, it becomes even more difficult when you go further west and north.

So right now, for example, if you have permanent daylight saving time in Vancouver, you won't

have sunlight before nine in the morning at different times of the year.

So a lot of Canadians, for example, could be going to school in darkness, going to work

in darkness.

That kind of thing is really difficult for health and for well-being.

But I also want to say for mental health, especially for people who are struggling with

depression with anxiety, that really takes a toll.

So the consensus, the science supports permanent standard time.

It's better aligned with your body and your brain's natural rhythms.

Is the Canadian Sleep Society taking a look at places like Vancouver and other places who

have done away with the daylight saving time right now to see what the ramifications are?

So this is one of the things that the Canadian Sleep Society, the Canadian Sleep Consortium,

the Quebec Sleep Network, the Canadian Chronovalogy.

One of the things that we're advocating for is to have a national consensus, to have

a national conference, to really look at this for all of Canada and come up with a reasonable

science-based approach to handle the time changes, because there have been studies, different

studies in North America and in Europe where you, mostly North America, where you see the

effects of daylight saving time, and the consensus is pretty clear that you definitely have

a negative impact on health, whether it be heart attack, depression, traffic accidents,

and you see it right after the switch, and that tends to go away when you go back to

permanent standard time.

So it's something we all advocate for.

We really need to have a reasonable science-based conversation of the country to figure out what

the best policy is.

I have about 10, 10, 15 seconds left here for the truly desperate.

Is there any role for sleep aids, melatonin, other supplements to help people reset after

the time change?

Or is it better just to tough it out naturally?

Melatonin doesn't put you to sleep, it just helps set the conditions for you to get

to sleep better.

I used to do the best thing people can do, exercise during the day, get sunlight during

the day, try your best to kind of shift the clock back a bit, don't fool yourself thinking,

oh well, you know, I'm just going to top it through, those things will help.

I'd be careful with the supplements, because again, they don't put you to sleep.

They just kind of help make the conditions for sleep, but the science isn't always there

on all of them.

The best thing is a more holistic approach, let's get you some light, get you to start getting

sleep a little bit earlier for a few nights before, and adjust as much as you can slowly.

Great insight.

Thanks for taking the time this morning, Dr. Piaz, and waking up an hour earlier just

to be with us.

I appreciate it.

It was a pleasure.

Thanks so much.

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