Daylight Savings Time: How You Could Possibly Be Affected

JACKSON, Tn.-Starting November 5th, the clocks will go back allowing people to gain an hour in the day. 39 News spoke with Dr. Zaidi a sleep medicine specialist in Jackson, about how this time change may affect your health.

“The position of AASM American Academy of Sleep Medicine is set up to eliminate seasonal time changes.”

Some may wonder why the American Academy is taking this position, here’s why:

“There's a lot of studies, that believe the circadian rhythm, which is the biological clock of the human body, which is very much linked to the setting of the sun and rising in the sun, is really affected during the time change."

Dr.Zaidi explains that recent studies have shown that there are some negative effects of the seasonal time change.

“The topic the first week of November is that we gain an hour is artificial and it has been linked to and surprisingly has been linked to increased risk of heart attack and stroke. There are many studies that said that more hospital admissions the day these changes happen and there's also more cardiac disturbances because of this change that linked to it, and of course, more emergency room visits, missed medical appointments, traffic accidents in the first few days of the change.”

One woman in Jackson says that she definitely feels the difference when the annual time change comes around

“I certainly do. Especially when I was working. I am retired now, but still I'm not a morning person. I really like that evening light when I'm out and about. Usually, I'm an outside person. It was very depressing when I leave work and it was already dark.” said Carol Reese

The time will automatically reset on most devices at 2 AM on Sunday and time will not spring forward until March 10th, 2024.