A Little Look at Time Changes

We Canucks set our clocks ahead one hour last Saturday night, in the annual ritual of Daylight Saving Time. "We" means most of Canada, with a few exceptions. Most of Saskatchewan stays on Central Standard Time year round; some areas in Ontario and British Columbia, and areas of Quebec east of 63 degrees west longitude do not change their clocks, but the rest of us dutifully deprive ourselves of an hour of sleep each spring. Although the time change is touted as an energy saver, it does come with a downside. Night owls seem to have the worst problem with the spring forward, tending to feel sleep-deprived for weeks. Heart attacks peak in the week following the spring forward, especially the first three days of the week. If you can hang in there, and survive the spring change, you can look forward to the fall-back in autumn when we recoup the missing hour of sleep. A study of twenty years of records show that heart attacks dip on the Monday following the autumn setting back of clocks.