Are Minnesotans At Risk Due To Daylight Saving Time?

DO WE REALLY NEED IT?

Many of us enjoyed that extra hour of sleep yesterday. I actually enjoyed it twice as I forgot to change my clocks back and was rushing around my house trying to get everything cleaned up and realized I finished an hour earlier than expected. But in the bigger picture, if we have data that suggests our bodies can't handle the time change, why do we continue to do it?

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THE STATS

A statistic that I should have known before I left the house this morning, is that car crashes are up after Daylight Saving Time ends. It makes no sense right? If that's the case, that alone should be reason enough to end this clock-changing craziness and keep our time the same all year long.If you are wondering why in the world this happens, this is what research is showing.

According to an article in The Journal of Safety Research, a study was completed on 6 states spanning all of the four major time zones in the United States. The researchers completed a study for 8 weeks when we 'spring forward', and a 4-week study for when we 'fall back.'

THE DATA

The data showed that in the spring, crashes were down, but the time change in the fall increased crashes overall by 6%, with considerable increases in freeway crashes, non-intersection crashes, night-time crashes, single-vehicle crashes, and crashes in urban areas.

Other studies suggest that the time change also messes with our circadian rhythm, which controls our sleep patterns. This leads to even more problems with our cardiovascular health, obesity, diabetes, and the list goes on and on.

WHY DON'T WE JUST SAY GOODBYE

Knowing all of this, why don't we pick a time and just stick with it? I understand we didn't have this knowledge at our fingertips when we put Daylight Saving Time in place, but we have it now; so why do we keep punishing ourselves?

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