We fall back from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time this weekend, but a new study conducted by the Sleep Foundation finds that our semi-annual time shifts have negative effects on our health.
An LSU Health doctor says those results don't surprise him.
"Moving the clocks for an hour in one direction or the other affects people's sleep," said Dr. Benjamin Springgate, the chief of community and population medicine at LSU Health New Orleans.
Dr. Springgate says although the time change may seem to have only a small impact on our sleep, those clock shifts actually do more harm than we think.
"We know that the change in sleep, while it's welcome in many people, some people are very sensitive to changes in their circadian rhythms," Dr. Springgate said. "That small amount of sleep can have significant effects. It can affect people's moods. It can affect people's attention spans. It can affect people's ability to drive cars."
Dr. Springgate says although the extra hour of sleep you'll be getting Saturday night might be welcome, it still can throw off your sleep pattern.
"That might throw off what's been a closely attuned or finely tuned pattern that they've had to adjust to get a good night's sleep every night," Dr. Springgate said.
Dr. Springgate also notes that affects the amount of sunlight we get. He says that, too, can have a major negative impact on people.
"You can think about it in terms of things like Seasonal Affective Disorder, which causes people to have depressive-like symptoms, which is a type of disorder which causes people to have more depressive-like symptoms particularly in the wintertime when there's less sunlight," Dr. Springgate said. "Anything that reduces that amount of light will affect those people who have Seasonal Affective Disorder, and they will get more symptoms, usually depressive-type symptoms. It can also lead to further insomnia."
Daylight Saving Time ends at 1:59:59 a.m. Sunday, so make sure you set your clocks back before going to bed tomorrow night.