Ah, Daylight Saving Time. That scourge of the sleep-deprived and night owls everywhere has passed yet again. I feel lethargic and drained, as per usual. The initial switchover of turning the clocks forward one hour can cause health problems, according to studies.
Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of the division of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women”s Hospital in Boston, and professor and director of the division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School, said turning our clocks forward increases chances for heart attacks by 5 percent. There is also a 6- to 17-percent increase in motor vehicle crashes on the nation”s highways, according to Czeisler.
In contrast, Czeisler said turning our clocks back one hour in the fall decreases our chances for heart attacks by 5 percent. That”s how sensitive our bodies are, Czeisler said.
During 2007, while I was working my way through college, I took a string of jobs during the period of a year – all graveyard shifts. Little did I know that I would permanently alter my sleep schedule and discover how sensitive my body was to a change in my sleep pattern.
Before those three graveyard shift jobs, I worked at a warehouse on the swing shift. I occasionally did work past midnight but, save for one royally awful night when I was there until 5 a.m., I never worked really late. I used to get off work and stay up watching TV and clicking around the Internet until around 3 a.m.
Working graveyard was incredibly rough. Instead of being active during the day, I became a sleep-deprived wreck, seemingly floating my way through life. I referred to myself as a zombie, because I was out of it most of the time.
I”d get off around 7 a.m. and crash out the moment I got home. I sacrificed sleep in order to spend time with my girlfriend. I”m not sure exactly how much quality time was spent, because I could often hardly stay awake. I”d come home in the afternoon dead tired and grab a few more hours sleep before repeating the cycle over again.
After a year of doing this, I found myself unemployed and in need of a change. The first week of unemployment, my sleep schedule rapidly changed. I began falling asleep between 11:30 p.m. and midnight, something I hadn”t done in years.
Eventually, my body found a regulated sleep schedule around 1 a.m. It moved to 4 a.m. during my last year of school and I”ve managed to regulate it to around 2:30 a.m. Of course, that is now 3:30 a.m. until I can move it back.
I read an interesting BBC News article a few weeks back about the “myth” of the eight-hour sleep cycle. It mentioned a sleep pattern that humanity has seemingly forgotten. People followed a segmented sleep pattern, falling asleep shortly after sundown, waking for a few hours during the night and falling back asleep until morning.
Roger Ekirch, a historian at Virginia Tech University, published a paper in 2001 drawn from 16 years of research into this segmented sleep pattern. Ekirch said people were active during this waking period and engaged in social activities, smoked tobacco, read, wrote and had sex. In fact, Ekirch said a French doctor”s manual from the 16th century advised couples that the best time to conceive was “after the first sleep” when “they have more enjoyment” and “do it better.” Interesting.
Over time, improvements to street lighting contributed to the decline of the first period of segmented sleep as people began staying up later. Ekirch said by 1920, the concept of segmented sleep had all but receded from our social consciousness.
As someone who gets tired around 9 p.m. regularly, I wish this sleep cycle hadn”t died off. I might benefit from segmented sleep, though the world doesn”t operate this way anymore.
Some people have adopted the segmented sleep pattern and seem to benefit from it, according to a follow up BBC News article. Ten people said they engage in activities such as painting, photography, yoga and listen to music before falling back to sleep. It seems like a decent way to pass the time.
Regardless, sleep is important. For those who have trouble adapting to pushing the clock forward like me, I hope your bodies adjust quickly and you get the rest you need and deserve.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
