DANVILLE, Pa. — Daylight Saving Time makes up about eight months of the year, while we are in Standard Time for the rest of the year. Now that Daylight Saving Time has ended and clocks moved back one hour, there is more sunlight in the morning. But that one hour can affect people physically and mentally.
Geisinger doctors say it has to do with having to adapt so quickly.
"When you're trying to immediately adapt to it, many times people are seeing very significant changes to your sleep/wake patterns, and it's not just because of the shift in the time. It also changes what our exposure to light is," said Dr. Anne Marie Morse, a pediatric neurologist and sleep medicine specialist at Geisinger.
Dr. Morse says the time change can lead to an increase in motor vehicle accidents, heart attacks, and sleep deprivation.
"Every single cell in our body has a circadian timing to their peak of function. And so, when we start manipulating what our bodies should do versus what our environment is telling us to do, we're creating a recipe for disaster."
Dr. Morse says you should do an inventory of your sleep to make the time change easier on your body.
"Are we getting the right duration of sleep? Are we getting the right quality of sleep? Are we getting the right timing of sleep? Are we having excessive daytime sleepiness during the day or mood disturbances?"
Dr. Morse says you should be mindful of your sleep schedule.
"You may want to think about the timing you're waking up so you're not overindulging and now making it harder for you to fall asleep the following night because that's a cycle we can potentially see," Dr. Morse added.
In addition to regulating your sleep schedule, you should get some natural sunlight to boost serotonin.