Wake Up, Half Moon Bay! You're Not Getting Enough Sleep

By CODY FENWICK (Patch Staff)

Feeling extra tired today? It's even worse than you think. Not only does Daylight Saving Time steal an hour of your sleep, it actually makes us less safe.

“If you look at the motor vehicle accidents that happen over the course of the year, there’s a tremendous spike on the Monday after Daylight Saving Time,” explained Dr. Daniel Barone, a neurologist with the Weill-Cornell Center for Sleep Medicine at New York-Presbyterian.

• Related: Tips to Avoid Car Crashes As Clocks Set Forward

Though people often joke about how little sleep they get, the effects are serious. Mood changes, irritability, problems with memory, and greater difficulty completing cognitive tasks are familiar symptoms to anyone in the habit of not getting enough sleep.

When an abrupt change in schedule affects millions of drivers across the country, it's no surprise that the roads get more dangerous.

Do you think we should get rid of Daylight Saving Time? Let us know in the comments.

"Because we’re already sleep deprived to begin with, and then you take another hour out of that, you get what we’re talking about: slowed reaction time, problems with cognitive abilities," said Dr. Barone. "That translates into higher [rates of] accidents on the road.”

Sleep deprivation in the United States

As Dr. Barone indicated, Daylight Saving Time is not solely to blame for our drowsiness. In fact, as much as a third or more of Americans may be getting too few hours of sleep a night on a regular basis.

In a report released by the Centers for Disease Control, a team of researchers found that only 65.2 percent of American adults are getting a healthy amount of sleep, defined as an average of seven hours or more a night.

Relying on data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a survey of over 440,000 Americans across the country, researchers found significant differences by state and region.

Hawaii is the most sleep-deprived state in the nation with only 56.1 percent of Hawaiians reporting that they typically get seven-plus hours of sleep. So much for the stereotypical vision of a relaxing island paradise.

South Dakota wins the prize for the best-rested state as 71.6 percent of its population consistently gets a healthy amount of sleep. In fact, the Great Plains region as whole appears to have the healthiest sleep patterns of the country, while the southeastern states and Appalachian region fall on the less-healthy side of the distribution.

You can see how our state matches up here:

(Numbers show the percent of the population getting seven or more hours of sleep on average. Source: CDC)

There are several caveats to the report. The survey data is derived from self-reports, and individuals may not be that reliable in reporting their own sleep habits. It also failed to include people who are institutionalized, who may habitually get less sleep because of chronic mental illness. There were also large variations in survey response rate by state, which may have introduced bias into the samples.

In the report, the researchers claim that seven hours of sleep is recommended for adults from age 18 to 60 to maintain optimal health and wellbeing. Dr. Barone also pointed out that getting too much sleep may also indicate a problem.

“There’s a lot of data showing that less than six hours, or more than ten, is actually associated with other health problems, like overall mortality in low sleep categories,” said Barone. “For people who sleep longer, it may be that they’re suffering from some other sleep problem, like sleep apnea, for example.”

In addition to the short term effects and the effects on mortality, Barone notes that sleep deprivation is also be associated with making poor dietary decisions. “People who are sleep-deprived may also crave high-calorie foods that are not good for us,” he explained.

We as a society sleep an hour less than we did 100 years ago. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot.

And it looks like our sleeping habits have been getting worse over the years, not better.

“We as a society sleep an hour less than we did 100 years ago. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s a lot,” Barone said.

Though the causes are multifarious, Barone pointed largely to changes in our culture. We can now be constantly exposed to electronics, information, and other people at any point in the day. In Barone’s words, “We’ve become a 24-hour society.”

Electronics themselves may take a fair share of the blame. Backlit devices, like computers and smartphones, give off blue light. This light suppresses our brain’s production of melatonin, which our brain produces when it gets dark outside to help us fall asleep.

Without proper melatonin production, our sleep habits suffer. So what would Barone recommend for those struggling to get a good night’s sleep?

“At least 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime, shut off all electronics,” he said. And it’s not only the light itself that’s the problem but what people are doing on their electronics.

“People are doing work emails right before bed, and getting themselves involved in activities that should be reserved for the morning. That can keep people awake.”

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