Sleep academy warns lawmakers about health risks of permanent daylight saving time

The U.S. Senate recently passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023.

The Sunshine Protection Act still requires approval from the House and President Joe Biden’s signature before it becomes law.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) applauded the Senate for passing legislation that would establish a fixed, year-round time but also cautioned that making daylight saving time (DST) permanent may lead to health risks that could be averted by establishing permanent standard time instead.

Previous research has shown that the change from standard time to DST is associated with an increased risk for adverse cardiovascular events, mood disorders and motor vehicle crashes, according to AASM. In its 2020 position statement, AASM advocated for a permanent standard time because it better aligns with human circadian biology.

“The negative health implications of permanent daylight saving time can be detrimental to Americans’ well-being,” Shalini Paruthi, MD, a member of the AASM and board-certified sleep medicine and internal medicine physician, told Healio. “Things like being exposed to too much light at night can disrupt our body’s internal clock, impairing quality of sleep and leading to sleep loss.”

In the AASM’s position statement, Muhammad Adeel Rishi, MD, a pulmonology, critical care and sleep medicine specialist at Indiana University Health, and colleagues wrote that sleep loss and circadian misalignment leads to “a variety of cellular derangements, including altered myocyte gene expression, altered epigenetic and transcriptional profile of core clock genes, increased production of inflammatory markers, lower vagal tone resulting in higher heart rate and blood pressure and reduced sleep.”

Although there is little research on the chronic effects of DST, evidence suggests that the human clock does not adjust to it even after several months, Rishi and colleagues wrote.

“Permanent DST could therefore result in permanent phase delay, a condition that can also lead to a perpetual discrepancy between the innate biological clock and the extrinsic environmental clock, as well as chronic sleep loss due to early morning social demands that truncate the opportunity to sleep,” they wrote.

This chronic misalignment is known as “social jet lag,” the authors wrote, and studies have shown that it can increase the risk for obesity, metabolic syndrome, CVD and depression.

AASM said the Senate’s swift passage of the Sunshine Protection Act did not allow for a robust discussion or debate. The academy called on the House to take more time to assess the potential risks of a permanent DST.

Paruthi said that AASM will continue to advocate for permanent standard time, as it is “the best choice for our overall health and safety.”

References:

Adeel Rishi M, et al. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020;doi:10.5664/jcsm.8780.

AASM statement on Senate passage of permanent daylight saving time bill. https://aasm.org/aasm-statement-senate-daylight-saving-time-sunshine-protection-act/. Published March 15, 2022. Accessed March 16, 2022.

S.623 – Sunshine Protection Act of 2021. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/623?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22sunshine%22%2C%22sunshine%22%5D%7D&s=1&r=2. Accessed March 16, 2022.