The neuroscience of time change and health

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Time is relative. Daylight Saving Time doesn't actually add more time to the day, it just changes the rhythms of sunrise and sunset times.

Now that we have entered another season with later daylight, people are once again coming to grips with the changes in those rhythms.

"We are forced to wake up in darkness and remained activated a lot later into the night," said Bill Griesar, who teaches neuroscience at Portland State University.

Griesar, who recently testified to the Oregon Senate debating a bill to end DST, said permanent standard time is better for our brains.

Senate Bill 1548 squeaked through the Senate but died in the House when Speaker Rayfield said there wasn't enough time in the short session to consider it.

Griesar said it's time to realize the health effects of changing time twice a year.

"There are increased risks, cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes," he said. "There's increased risks of mood disorders like depression and anxiety, seasonal defective disorder. Motor vehicles accidents increase after the first week after the change."

Supporters of discontinuing a twice-yearly time change hope to bring the bill up again next year. But any move toward a permanent time would need the support of both Washington and California and, eventually, the US
Congress.