Doctors Suggest Taking Daylight Saving Sleep Deprivation Seriously

By Kristian Foden-Vencil (OPB)
Portland, Oregon March 9, 2018 10:43 p.m.

Daylight saving time starts Sunday. Doctors say people ought to take losing an hour of sleep seriously.

Ken Weiser, a naturopathic doctor at Providence Health System, said the best way to deal with the time change is to go to sleep and wake-up a little earlier over the next few days. You should definitely take it seriously," he said.

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"An hour can make a big difference. There’s a spectrum. Some people can breeze through it, but some people really get disoriented," said Weiser.

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He said people should get some sunlight during the days leading up to the change and exercise good sleep hygiene.

Daylight saving is designed to make better use of daylight and conserve electricity. But when Indiana introduced the time change in 2006, a study found daylight saving actually increased energy use.

It was first used in 1908 in Canada and now about 40 percent of countries use it.

The New Zealand scientist George Vernon Hudson is credited by most for inventing daylight saving time. In 1895 he proposed a two-hour shift, but the government never followed through.

Other people think Benjamin Franklin is responsible, because in 1784 he wrote to a Paris newspaper suggesting people economize on candle use by getting out of bed earlier. Many think it was meant as a joke.

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