Switching to Daylight Saving Time can be genuinely hard on the heart

If losing an hour’s sleep to the annual start of Daylight Saving Time left you feeling zonked out and cranky for days afterward, you’re not alone.

In fact, you’re lucky if that’s the only effect it had on you.

A new study has found that on Mondays after the switch to Daylight Saving Time, the heart attack rate goes up by a whopping 25 percent!

Researchers looked at admissions at Michigan hospitals for four years in a row. So the finding wasn’t merely a fluke.

At best, Monday mornings are hard on the heart, due to the extra stress of starting a new work week, according to the doctor who led the study. But adding the loss of an hour’s sleep seems to be the last straw for a lot of people.

“Our study suggests that sudden, even small changes in sleep could have detrimental effects,” he said. And people with existing heart problems seem to be the most at risk.

Even further proof of the heart-clock connection was provided by another finding – that heart attacks fell 21 percent on the Tuesday after a return to Standard Time. That’s when you turn the clock back an hour and get some extra sleep.

Who doesn’t love the idea of having another hour of daylight on a warm summer evening? But this study shows we need to adjust our sleep schedules to make sure we get to enjoy it.

Sources:
“Daylight saving time linked to heart attacks, study shows” Reuters, March 31, 2014, foxnews.com