Spring Forward Messes with More than Time

Ah, Spring is right around the corner for most of us and your fancy lightly turns to thoughts of....Daylight Saving Time? Well you better pay it some attention today since the time springs forward and you lose an hour's sleep tonight. According to some sources, you may lose more than a little sleep adapting to the change.

But when the country jumps ahead an hour Sunday morning, that one little lost hour of sleep has a big impact. "It turns out that it takes two to three days - sometimes even longer - to make up and to adjust to that extra hour lost," said Dr. Sonia Ancoli-Israel of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

I can't say that I've ever noticed it bothering me.

Realistically, you don't lose an hour of sleep if you just go to bed an hour earlier than normal. It's not like it just sneaks up out of nowhere and kicks you out of bed.

Sounds like just one more thing for people to blame stuff on, IMO.

Best part about Daylight savings time is going back to standard in the fall

"It turns out that it takes two to three days - sometimes even longer - to make up and to adjust to that extra hour lost" .

Maybe if you're a huge pussy.

There are people who work on rotating schedules, where they work one week 9pm to 5pm, another week 5pm to 1am, another week 1am to 9am.

There are people who regularly end up getting only a few hours of sleep instead of the usual 8 (or the usual 6, or whatever).

I go to bed at different times all the time, could be anywhere from 10pm to 4am.

If you can't handle a one hour time change, I don't see how you could possibly handle everything else life throws at you.

It isn't whether an individual can handle it, it's whether the nation as a whole can handle the change which is a resounding "no." In any event, finals week is next week at my university which I assume will make for some extra complaints from the slacker crowd.

Daylight Savings Time is one of the dumbest ideas in a long history of dumb ideas. The only thing dumber was extending it. Leave the *#!#!@ clocks alone! Just pick one $@#!@# time or the other and be done with it!

Originally Posted by N2OInferno

I can't say that I've ever noticed it bothering me.

Realistically, you don't lose an hour of sleep if you just go to bed an hour earlier than normal. It's not like it just sneaks up out of nowhere and kicks you out of bed.

Sounds like just one more thing for people to blame stuff on, IMO.

Agreed.

Originally Posted by N2OInferno

I can't say that I've ever noticed it bothering me.

Realistically, you don't lose an hour of sleep if you just go to bed an hour earlier than normal. It's not like it just sneaks up out of nowhere and kicks you out of bed.

Sounds like just one more thing for people to blame stuff on, IMO.

You must be one of those few people who have a very good internal clock and can go to sleep at an instant... I know if I went to bed at 11pm every night, that me going to bed at 10pm basically is me laying in bed not sleeping for a while before going to bed.

IMO, Noon is defined as when the sun is highest in the sky, lets stick to that and stop with the spring forward fall back crap!

Wait, it starts THIS weekend? I thought it was the first Sunday in April.

Hell, I dunno, I live in Arizona and they don't do DST here. For me it just means my
shows come on an hour later.

Does it start at midnight? I work midnights, and last time this happened I had a 9 hour shift
does that mean I have a 7 hour shift tonight? With my luck the fucker on duty will call me and tell me to get there an hour early, I can see it now..

starts at 2am

as to your job, hell if you spring forward an hour, you get to work an hour less and still get paid for it right?

I have finals on monday and the test is going to start an hour before I usually go to class. Now with daylight, I have to get up two hours earlier

Originally Posted by sfsuphysics

You must be one of those few people who have a very good internal clock and can go to sleep at an instant... I know if I went to bed at 11pm every night, that me going to bed at 10pm basically is me laying in bed not sleeping for a while before going to bed.

Quite the opposite, actually. There are plenty of times I lay in bed for a couple hours before falling asleep. Just a few weeks ago I went to bed at 1 and fell asleep at about 3:30. Melatonin helps once in a while, but more often than not it has no effect. If I know I have to get up at a time I'm not used to for something important, I know that I don't fall asleep easily and I go to bed earlier accordingly. Or I take some Tylenol PM and that will knock me right out.

2 or 3 days? Always takes me a couple weeks.

You can deny your internal clocks all you want. Sleep cycles are measurable (hormone levels, EEGs, etc.) as are your reaction times and concentration during wakefulness. A change of what amounts to 1/6 of most adults' sleep cycle has a significant effect.

Doesn't hold a candle to the day after the Superbowl, though.

I already feel tired and it's yet to move the clock forward lol

I picked up God of War collection at Wal Mart, I'm gonna give the DST the middle finger and stay up all night, then sleep all day Sunday

Yay, an hour less of work for me.

Studies show a marked increase in accidents (especially traffic ones) up to around 5 days after changing the clocks.

Simply put, apart from habit and people being used to it, there's no viable economic reason for still doing this anywhere.

If America leads the way in removing this useless waste of time, hopefully Europe would follow, along with the rest of the civilised world.

Originally Posted by Lord_Anselhelm

Studies show a marked increase in accidents (especially traffic ones) up to around 5 days after changing the clocks.

Simply put, apart from habit and people being used to it, there's no viable economic reason for still doing this anywhere.

If America leads the way in removing this useless waste of time, hopefully Europe would follow, along with the rest of the civilised world.

My vote would be to just stick with DST all year round. I don't mind waking up when it's still dark, but I can't sleep in through the light. Then again, the more obvious solution would be to just change my business hours.

The real problem with DST is not so much the amount of sleep as the waking up what your body thinks is an hour early. Your body is attuned to being asleep at that time and it responds poorly to being woken up. You're slow and groggy until you re-adjust. Going to bed an hour early will help with the sleep deprivation issue, but not that one.