'Spring forward' to daylight saving time brings surge in fatal car crashes

Deadly accidents spike 6% in week after time change

January 30, 2020

Science Daily/University of Colorado at Boulder

A study of 732,000 accidents over two decades has found that the annual switch to daylight saving time is associated with a 6% increase in fatal car crashes that week.

Fatal car accidents in the United States spike by 6% during the workweek following the "spring forward" to daylight saving time, resulting in about 28 additional deaths each year, according to new University of Colorado Boulder research.

The study, published January 30 in the journal Current Biology, also found that the farther west a person lives in his or her time zone, the higher their risk of a deadly crash that week.

"Our study provides additional, rigorous evidence that the switch to daylight saving time in spring leads to negative health and safety impacts," said senior author Celine Vetter, assistant professor of integrative physiology. "These effects on fatal traffic accidents are real, and these deaths can be prevented."

The findings come at a time when numerous states, including Oregon, Washington, California and Florida, are considering doing away with the switch entirely, and mounting research is showing spikes in heart attacks, strokes, workplace injuries and other problems in the days following the time change.

For the study -- the largest and most detailed to date to assess the relationship between the time change and fatal motor vehicle accidents -- the researchers analyzed 732,835 accidents recorded through the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System from 1996 to 2017. They excluded Arizona and Indiana, where Daylight Savings Time was not consistently observed.

After controlling for factors like year, season and day of the week, they found a consistent rise in fatal accidents in the week following the spring time change. Notably, that spike moved in 2007, when the Energy Policy Act extended daylight saving time to begin on the second Sunday of March instead of the first Sunday in April.

"Prior to 2007, we saw the risk increase in April, and when daylight saving time moved to March, so did the risk increase," said Vetter. "That gave us even more confidence that the risk increase we observe is indeed attributable to the daylight saving time switch, and not something else."

With the arrival March 9 of daylight saving time, clocks shift forward by one hour, and many people will miss out on sleep and drive to work in darkness -- both factors that can contribute to crashes.

Those on the western edge of their time zone, in places like Amarillo, Texas, and St. George, Utah, already get less sleep on average than their counterparts in the east -- about 19 minutes less per day, research shows -- because the sun rises and sets later but they still have to be at work when everyone else does.

"They already tend to be more misaligned and sleep-deprived, and when you transition to daylight saving time it makes things worse," said first author Josef Fritz, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Integrative Physiology. In such western regions, the spike in fatal accidents was more than 8%, the study found.

The increase kicks in right away, on the Sunday when the clocks spring forward, and the bulk of the additional fatal accidents that week occur in the morning.

Changes in accident patterns also occur after the "fall back" time change, the study showed, with a decline in morning accidents and a spike in the evening, when darkness comes sooner.

Because they balance each other out, there is no overall change in accidents during the "fall back" week.

In all, over the course of the 22 years of data analyzed, about 627 people died in fatal car accidents associated with the spring shift to Daylight Savings Time, the study estimated.

Because the data only include the most severe of car accidents, the authors believe the results underestimate the true risk increase to drivers when time springs forward.

"Our results support the theory that abolishing time changes completely would improve public health," said Vetter. "But where do we head from here? Do we go to permanent standard time or permanent daylight saving time?"

Generally speaking, research has shown, it's better for sleep, the body clock, and overall health to have more morning light and less evening light, as is the case under standard time. Under permanent daylight saving time, mornings would stay dark later in winter all over the country, with the western parts of each time zone seeing the sun the latest, Vetter noted.

"As a circadian biologist, my clear preference is toward standard time."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200130144410.htm

Blue-enriched white light to wake you up in the morning

March 6, 2019

Science Daily/The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)

Here is good news for those who have difficulty with morning alertness. A research team proposed that a blue-enriched LED light can effectively help people overcome morning drowsiness. This study will provide the basis for major changes in future lighting strategies and thereby help create better indoor environments.

Considerable research has been devoted to unmasking circadian rhythms. The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael W. Young for unveiling the molecular mechanisms that control circadian rhythms. In particular, the relationship between light and its physiological effects has been investigated since the discovery of a novel, third type of photoreceptor in the human retina in the early 2000s. Rods and cones regulate visual effects, while the third type, photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, regulate a large variety of biological and behavioral processes including melatonin and cortisol secretion, alertness, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Initial studies on light sources have shown that blue monochromatic, fully saturated lights are effective for stimulating physiological responses, but the relative effectiveness of commercially available white light sources is less well understood. Moreover, the research was more focused on the negative effects of blue light; for instance, when people are exposed to blue light at night, they have trouble achieving deep sleep because the light restrains melatonin secretion.

However, Professor Hyeon-Jeong Suk and Professor Kyungah Choi from the Department of Industrial Design and their team argue that the effects of blue-enriched morning light on physiological responses are time dependent, and that it has positive effects on melatonin levels and the subjective perception of alertness, mood, and visual comfort compared with warm white light.

The team conducted an experiment with 15 university students. They investigated whether an hour of morning light exposure with different chromaticity would affect their physiological and subjective responses differently. The decline of melatonin levels was significantly greater after the exposure to blue-enriched white light in comparison with warm white light.

Professor Suk said, "Light takes a huge part of our lives since we spend most of our time indoors. Light is one of the most powerful tools to affect changes in how we perceive and experience the environment around us."

Professor Choi added, "When we investigate all of the psychological and physiological effects of light, we see there is much more to light than just efficient quantities. I believe that human-centric lighting strategies could be applied to a variety of environments, including residential areas, learning environments, and working spaces to improve our everyday lives."

This research was collaborated with Professor Hyun Jung Chung from the Graduate School of Nanoscience and Technology.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190306100602.htm

Lack of morning light keeping teenagers up at night

February 27, 2010

Science Daily/Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The first field study on the impact of light on teenagers' sleeping habits finds that insufficient daily morning light exposure contributes to teenagers not getting enough sleep.

"As teenagers spend more time indoors, they miss out on essential morning light needed to stimulate the body's 24-hour biological system, which regulates the sleep/wake cycle," reports Mariana Figueiro, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Program Director at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Lighting Research Center (LRC) and lead researcher on the new study.

"These morning-light-deprived teenagers are going to bed later, getting less sleep and possibly under-performing on standardized tests. We are starting to call this the teenage night owl syndrome."

Disrupting Biological Rhythms

The problem is that today's middle and high schools have rigid schedules requiring teenagers to be in school very early in the morning. These students are likely to miss the morning light because they are often traveling to and arriving at school before the sun is up or as it's just rising. "This disrupts the connection between daily biological rhythms, called circadian rhythms, and the earth's natural 24-hour light/dark cycle," explains Dr. Figueiro.

In addition, the schools are not likely providing adequate electric light or daylight to stimulate this biological or circadian system, which regulates body temperature, alertness, appetite, hormones and sleep patterns. Our biological system responds to light much differently than our visual system. It is much more sensitive to blue light. Therefore, having enough light in the classroom to read and study does not guarantee that there is sufficient light to stimulate our biological system.

"According to our study, however, the situation in schools can be changed rapidly by the conscious delivery of daylight, which is saturated with short-wavelength, or blue, light," reports Dr. Figueiro.

The new research has applications for more than 3 million shift workers and Alzheimer's patients who suffer from lack of a regular sleep pattern.

Studies have shown that this lack of synchronization between a shift worker's rest and activity and light/dark patterns leads to a much higher risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, seasonal depression and cancer over decades.

As evidenced in prior studies by Dr. Figueiro, light therapy can also be used to improve sleep in Alzheimer's patients, who usually display uneven sleep patterns. "By removing light at certain times of day, and giving light at other times, you can synchronize the sleep/wake patterns of Alzheimer's patients with the light/dark pattern, providing them with more consolidated sleep," says Dr. Figueiro.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216140305.htm