Did you “spring forward” this weekend and lose an hour of sleep? Congratulations. You have an increased chance of dying this morning.
Today is the first Monday after daylight saving time (or DST), which means you have a better chance of having a heart attack this morning than any other Monday morning all year.
A study has found that there is a 24 percent increase in the number of heart attacks occurring the Monday after we spring forward for daylight saving time, compared with other Mondays throughout the year.
Statistically, because of your job and the change in sleep patterns, you have an increased chance for heart attack on Mondays in general, but “With DST, all of this is compounded by one less hour of sleep,” said Dr. Amneet Sandhu, a cardiology fellow at the University of Colorado in Denver.
“Our study suggests that sudden, even small changes in sleep could have detrimental effects,” he added.
When we fall back later in the year and gain that hour back, they found a 21 percent reduction in heart attacks on the following Tuesday.
“We go through DST periods twice yearly,” Sandhu said. “We may want to look more closely at whether the shift in the timing of heart attacks seen after DST leads to any negative health outcomes.”
The Related Rabbit Hole
