End of daylight saving time can affect your health

It doesn’t matter that it still feels like summer. The days are about to get shorter as we head towards winter.

Daylight saving time ends Sunday, Nov. 3. It means setting the clock back one hour. Sleep experts say it can interfere with your sleep cycle and potentially harm your health.

Goodbye long, lazy summer days. Like it or not, nighttime is coming early. The upside, as far as Valerie Caceres is concerned, is that she gets more sleep.

“Actually, I think I’m gonna enjoy the hour extra,” Caceres said. “You get more time to get ready in the morning for work.”

The truth is that falling back can make a mess of our sleep, affecting our mood and mental health. Experts with Amerisleep explain the transition interferes with the body’s circadian rhythm. The cycle is based on light exposure and it regulates things like appetite and mood.

Sabrina Pajares has a tough time adjusting. “I don’t know about other people, but like me, it takes me about a whole month.”

Resetting your internal time clock also stresses the body, even if it’s only an hour. Sleep doctors say it releases stress hormones that can increase the risk of heart attack and stroke. Not connected to the time of day, but the change itself.

“Actually I think they should just leave it the way it is and not change it because to me it just confuses everything,” Debra Churnega told WINK News health and medical reporter Amy Oshier. “I don’t know, it just throws everything off.”

Her husband Dale takes it in stride. “You get used to it in a relatively easy amount of time.”

The key to a smooth transition is to get an early start and stay active during the day. It should help you fall into a good sleep pattern.

We are better off living in Florida since we still have many hours of sunshine. Fewer people experience seasonal affective disorder which leads to depression in many people in northern climates.