Standard time comes early Sunday, although health experts say it should stay that way all year round

“Falling back” an hour this weekend and giving us an extra hour of sleep is better than “jumping forward” and losing an hour, but experts say changing the clock times twice a year disrupts sleep and brings other problems brings health risks.

“So when the clock shifts, our biological internal clock gets messed up because our daily activities always happen at the same time – school still starts at the same time, work still starts at the same time – but our body wants to go to the previous time “I've gotten used to it,” said Lauren Hale, a professor in Stony Brook Medicine's Department of Family, Population and Preventive Medicine and the Public Health Program.

The ultimate effect, Hale said in an interview Friday, “is dysregulation in every cell of the human body.

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. on Sunday and clocks should be set back one hour. It lasts until March 9th.

Hale said that it is better to gain an hour in the fall than to lose an hour in the spring, as this has a more negative impact on the body.

“In the fall, when we fall back, that extra hour typically allows a little bit more sleep for people who need it, so we don't really see much of a health impact,” Hale said. “But in the spring, when there's a 23-hour day for one night, people who are already sleep-deprived are hurt even more because they're already sleep-deprived. This week there is an increase in car accidents, heart attacks and strokes,” she said.

The time change has been the subject of intense national debate.

Legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent has been passed in both Congress and the New York State Legislature. But health experts say standard time should be made permanent.

In 2020, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine released a statement saying that standard time should be set year-round: “… daylight saving time is less aligned with humans' circadian biology – reflecting the effects of delayed natural time Light/dark cycle on human activity could lead to circadian misalignment, which has been linked in some studies to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome and other health risks.

Hale said she is also a supporter of permanent standard time. “First, it is better because clock changes disrupt the circadian rhythm” of the human body.

Second, she said, “If you have to decide when society gets its light… it's healthier for individuals to get it earlier in the day because it helps them wake up and reset their circadian rhythms.”