UKH

If you listen to this TED talk, at about 9 mins in he makes the remarkable claim that, on the day after the spring time change (when you lose an hour) the heart attack rate increases 24% and on the Autumn time change the rate falls 21%. And this is based on 1.6 billion people!

https://www.ted.com/talks/matt_walker_sleep_is_your_superpower?language=en

I've always been thankful that I live in a place where we don't bother with daylight savings but now I'm a little more chuffed

But there is a lot more to the talk that is worth listening to.

In reply to Removed User:

You certainly miss the feeling of utter desolation when the clock goes back at the end of October. However, you also miss the feeling of elation when the clock goes forward at the end of March. I'm looking forward to it already.

In reply to russellcampbell:

or that feeling of brief relief in October that the mornings are brighter for a while and at least the knowledge that it should be light at 9am in the weeks to come

I found the experiment with total darkness in winter at 8am in the 1960s total misery

has this exposition been peer-reviewed

In reply to wercat: I've read in New Scientist about not getting enough sleep being a silent killer in various ways. It's meant to be unhelpful if one wants to lessen the chances of dementia too, I gather, with that only applying from the early to mid 40's onwards (a relief to me, with my past sleep habits). 

In reply to wercat:

I'm old enough to remember the 1960s experiment but can't remember it making much difference to the winter. In central Scotland it isn't light at 8.00am for most of the winter. Today it was around 8.45 before it got light. Began to pour around 10am. I take it you've got it a lot drier.

In reply to russellcampbell:

Still, better to be light by 8.45 than 9.45!

In reply to wercat:

Interestingly I don't find the darker mornings that bad as the result is that I can still drive home in the light after work.

Not sure about the peer review but I'd hope that there was something to back up such a startling claim.

In reply to girlymonkey:

Fair enough

In reply to girlymonkey:

Not if its dark by 3.30 pm

In reply to Removed User: Do you think it might be a subjective thing, with some people preferring lighter mornings, or lighter afternoons?

In reply to Removed User:

Given that clocks change on a weekend im not sure why folk don't factor this in and sleep the same duration. Plus if you normally sleep 8, only getting 7 isn't really so dramatic. It's not like an alpine start!! 

In reply to summo:

That isn't the message though, is it? The man makes the direct link between the loss of a single hour of sleep and the increase in the rate of heart attacks by 24%.

Whatever you do, don't shoot the messenger

In reply to Timmd:

Absolutely. But I am here to tell you that having lived under both systems I much prefer the one where the clocks don't change.

In reply to Removed User:

But by then I am up and about. Trying to get motivated to get out the door when it is still dark is really hard. And if you work inside then you never see daylight as it would be dark anyway by the time you leave work, but getting there in the light at least means you have seen SOME daylight

In reply to Removed User:

I wasn't aiming to shoot anyone. But more of in depth ponder... do these people have existing conditions, shift workers, not sleep sufficiently etc...

The improvement with an extra hour could suggest many people aren't sleeping enough in the first place. 

In reply to Removed User:

Thank you very much, but I suggest that is codswallop. In a 12-year study of 220,000 deaths, heart attacks peaked in December and January, and were at their lowest in June, July, August, and September

See “When Throughout the Year Is Coronary Death Most Likely to Occur?”:

https://ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.cir.100.15.1630

In reply to Removed User:

Not wanting to commit to listening to the talk, could you possibly clarify a few things?

(1) where does he get those figures from? I'd like to know more about how they were produced.

(2) what does the 24% increase actually mean? Is it just that there are 24% more heart attacks on that specific day? Or over what period? Is it an increase in total number of heart attacks over the year, or is it just 'bringing forward' heart attacks that were going to happen anyway, so there are more on that day but fewer on following days?

(3) what is the risk of a heart attack on a particular day anyway? I can't imagine it's very high, so increasing it by 24% doesn't sound like a lot of extra risk if it's really just for that day. And it's almost balanced out by the reduction at the other end of the year anyway (depending on the answer to (2) above).

I don't expect you to go out of your way to answer these (unless you have the answers handy), time's precious. But these are things I'd ask to try to find out what the real risks might be - 24% increase sounds alarming, but might really be pretty much nothing, depending on the above.

In reply to profitofdoom:

Not sure this is a counter argument to the OP. It's quite possible that winter cold/dark and sleep deprivation are both causal factors behind increased heart attack rates. Just because the former may have a larger effect doesn't mean the latter cannot be significant too.

In reply to john arran:

I think this might be the research being quoted in the TED talk: https://openheart.bmj.com/content/openhrt/1/1/e000019.full.pdf

In reply to Thugitty Jugitty:

Which says somehting completely different to what the TED talk is being alleged to claim

In reply to Removed User:

I wonder how much doing weeks day shift and then nightshift continously for years affects us shift workers hearts, I bet its not good. 

In reply to Pefa:

Well, if you listen to the talk, his specific claim is that shift work is carcinogenic! TBH he doesn't quote what his research sources are so I can't comment on the accuracy of the claims.

In reply to Removed User:

Bloody hell! And for time and a 40th tae. 

In reply to profitofdoom:

The statistics may be dodgy but surely there is some truth in the idea that sleep disruption and heart trouble are linked?

So many of the life long shift shift workers I knew (over a fifteen year period ) died suddenly around retirement age and none of them made it to 70. Same happened to all the drivers I knew that regularly made 3 and 4am starts throughout their careers.

In reply to alan moore:

Yes, of course, and there is much discussion of this, e.g. the paper I gave a link to has some discussion of the whole topic of the causes of heart problems. In my post I was just challenging the precise numbers with dates given in the OP

In reply to alan moore:

I suspect it’s more related to diet than sleep. I’ve watched the guys who do shifts here for the last 15 years and all their diets are really bad. They don’t have time to prepare decent food and don’t have a plan of when to eat. I’ve seen two or three guys literally slowly die before my eyes. 

In reply to Timmd:

given that people seem to be divided between morning and evening persons that seems quite plausible

being a short sleeper I've got no hope!  I'm the one who would go out early, back in the cave for an afternoon snooze and then wake up to keep watch for beasts before dawn

In reply to Removed User:

people look at their worst and weakest towards the end of winter before the spring really gets going - it's a tough wearing time when reserves are low - doesn't surprise me that people die then

In reply to russellcampbell:

on the morning I posted it was very dark

I do know that the earlier in January dawns bring me more relief than later evenings though.  Very glad that we've seen the end of those awful CFLs though - never feel awake in that light at any time