Daylight Saving Time: Losing an hour is not necessarily good for adolescents
(WJAR) — "We went from having light for early in the morning to it's dark early in the morning," says Dr. Jared Saletin, a sleep researcher at Bradley Hospital.
He, like many other adolescent sleep experts, gives a big thumbs down to a legislative push to make Daylight Saving Time permanent.
"The American Academy of sleep medicine, the sleep research society, have all come down strongly on this to suggest that that is not the best solution for our physical and mental health," Saletin said.
He said that in reality, the standard time is the time of the sun.
"Our bodies are like a watch," Saletin said. "The thing that sets the time of that watch is the sun. It's not what we set our clocks to in the outside world."
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For adolescents, it's even more deeply felt.
"Our pubetal development, our biology, actually changes," he said. "So, each of us changed our clock this week by one hour. Adolescents, their internal clock changes sometimes an hour to two hours during adolescence. It's as if their body travels to a different time zone."
Losing an additional hour this time of year, he said, is like bad jet lag.
Since adolescents get one to two hours, on average, less sleep a night than they need, we're talking about a sleep deficit of 10 hours a week.
That sleep so important for many reasons.
"To our ability to stay physically healthy, mentally healthy and to learn and thrive," said Saletin.
Some suggestions?
- Lights on in the morning when it's dark outside.
- Set a reasonable bedtime for your kids.
While making up sleep on the weekends can help, keeping a routine is most important.
"Try not to sleep in 'til noon. That's just going to make Monday even harder," said Saletin.
Of course, this is great advice for adults, too.
If you find your child isn't getting enough sleep - eight to 10 hours a night - there are professionals out there who can help you find that structure.