Spring forward? Doctors say Americans can't afford to lose any more sleep
A new report finds less than a third of Americans get the appropriate sleep per night.
Chronic sleep loss can have significant effects on one's health. And now, with daylight saving time kicking in this weekend, you might feel it even more.
Experts offer advice on how to make the adjustment smoothly.
Every spring, we lose an hour when we adjust our clocks.
"Just change it up a little bit. Either I fall asleep a little later or earlier," said Israel Suarez.
Many are so used to springing forward, they describe it as a mere nuisance.
"I think it's kind of inconvenient for me because you know I love my sleep," said Zachary Hinton.
While Americans love sleep, new data from the ongoing Apple Heart & Movement Study that used data from iPhones and Apple watches finds 31% get the American Heart Association's recommended 7 to 9 hours per night. And losing even a little more creates cumulative effects.
"It's like going into credit card debt. All of a sudden losing that one hour of sleep, well, after a full week you've lost an entire night of sleep," said Dr. Kendra Becker, a sleep medicine expert with Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center.
She said not only does moving clocks forward lead to sleep loss at the start of the day, extended daylight means more people stay up longer.
"There's an increased risk of heart attacks, errors at work and there's even a study in 2020 that showed a 6% increase in car accidents with fatalities.
So what can you do to lessen the time change effects? Becker said start with trying to wake up earlier a day or so before so it's not such a sudden change. Also, stop using smart phones at bedtime. But if you just have to use them, Becker said devices come with blue light reduction features.
"You can actually get rid of some of that blue light that's keeping you awake even later," she said.
Experts say the early sunsets during standard time are more suited to our body's natural rhythms
"Darker evenings can really help us sleep better," Becker said.
But, if proposed legislation passes at the federal level to make daylight saving permanent, Becker said that would be healthier than constantly going back and forth.
"I don't know that we need to keep doing this," she said.
