"Daylight Saving Time Increases Serious Heart Attacks, Decreases Returns on Investments in Week After Change"

From CBS News:

Daylight saving time begins at 2 a.m. Sunday. It's supposed to save energy -- pushing daylight later in the day means fewer lights turned on at night. Benjamin Franklin, annoyed by an early sunrise in Paris, first came up with the idea. Congress made it law in 1918 during World War I to conserve energy.

But when the country jumps ahead an hour Sunday morning, that one little lost hour of sleep has a big impact.

The number of serious heart attacks goes up 6 to 10 percent (PDF) on the first three workdays after the time change. On Wall Street, economists say sleep-deprived traders often produce "large negative returns" on that following Monday, once estimated at $31 billion.


"It turns out that it takes two to three days - sometimes even longer - to make up and to adjust to that extra hour lost," said Dr. Sonia Ancoli-Israel of the University of California San Diego School of Medicine.

Once we do make up for the hour, there's an upside: we're better drivers in daylight, reducing fatal car crashes and pedestrians getting hit.

In Losing Sleep At The Market: The Daylight Saving Anomaly, by Mark J. Kamstra, Lisa A. Kramer and Maurice D. Levi write:

...it has been argued that an important thread connecting the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, the near meltdown at Three Mile Island, the massive oil spill from the Exxon Valdez, and the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger, is peopple making mistakes because of workshift changes and consequent imbalances of sleep. Equally tragic but less publicized consequences of sleep-related errors have resulted from accidents, which each year "cost the United States over $56 billion, cause nearly 25,000 deaths and result in over 2.5 million disabling injuries."

I don't suppose anyone ever thought of giving Monday off?
More importantly--are the risks really worth the rewards?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Daylight Saving Time.