[Dr. Marks] If you live in the United States,
you recently had to change your clock
from daylight savings time to standard time
unless you live in Arizona or Hawaii,
where they don't observe daylight savings time.
Daylight savings time moves the clock forward
so you have more daylight later in the day.
And while that may seem more fun to have a longer day,
did you know it actually works
against our natural body rhythm,
worsening mental and physical problems for some people?
That's what I'm talking about today.
I'm Dr. Tracy Marks, a psychiatrist,
and I make mental health education videos.
Morning sunlight serves as the natural synchronizer
for our circadian rhythms,
playing a key role in our mental and physical wellbeing.
The circadian rhythm, often referred to as the body clock,
is an internal system that's aligned
to the movement of the sun.
It regulates your sleepiness and wakefulness
over a 24-hour period, but that's not all it does.
All the cells of your body are controlled by this clock,
and the clock controls the timing of your metabolism,
heart rate, blood pressure, and hormone levels
just to name a few of the functions controlled by the clock.
When your clock gets misaligned from the sun's pattern,
like when you cross time zones, for example,
you can have trouble sleeping,
experience mood and appetite changes and energy changes.
Our bodies use light signals
to reset circadian rhythms each day.
Exposure to natural light in the morning
helps signal the body to wake up and increases alertness
and prepares us for the day ahead.
This morning light exposure
also increases the production of hormones,
like serotonin and cortisol.
Serotonin boosts mood and cortisol boosts energy
and helps get you going.
On the other hand, darkness triggers
the production of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep,
and your melatonin remains around in circulation
as long as it's dark.
Now, here's where daylight savings time comes into play.
The time of sunrise varies throughout the year.
For some people in the United States,
sunrise can be as early as 4:30 in the morning
in the summers,
and as late as 8:00 in the morning in the winters.
Daylight savings moves the clock forward
one hour in the spring,
which makes sunset happen an hour later
and maximizes your evening sunlight.
The problem is it also moves your sunrise later too.
We need morning sun more than we need evening sun.
Let's look at a real example.
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, on November 5th,
the first day of the switch back to standard time,
sunrise happened at 7:01 AM.
If we remained on daylight savings time,
sunrise would be at 8:01 AM.
For people who have to be up and about
before 8:00 in the morning,
like students or people who have to travel to a 9:00 AM job,
it means that you're waking up
and getting ready in the dark.
You're bypassing your body's natural wake up system.
The reason I'm bringing this issue up now
is because switching back and forth
with the clocks twice a year disrupts our rhythm.
But more importantly, in March of 2022,
the US Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act,
which would make daylight savings time permanent.
- So I am eager to be rid of fallback
and this would give us a chance
for Americans all across the country to be rid of fallback,
to make daylight savings time permanent,
and to add a little sunlight into most people's lives.
- The bill has not yet passed
in the House of Representatives,
but Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced the bill
for consideration in March of 2023.
But I guess Congress has been too busy with wars
and the budget issue to address this,
if permanent daylight savings time is implemented,
it would mean that many people
would start their day in darkness,
missing out on the crucial signal
that morning sunlight provides.
Waking up and going to school
or work in darkness throws off the body's internal clock.
This misalignment can lead to difficulty waking up,
decreased performance in the early part of the day,
and just overall slowness.
Having your body clocked pushed to later in the day
is sometimes referred to as social jet lag.
This is already a problem for adolescents
and affects their ability to feel sleepy
at a time in the evening when they should be going to bed.
With social jet lag, you fall asleep later than you should
for the time that you need to get up,
and then you wake up earlier
than your body is ready to wake up,
because of the social obligations that you have
that make you wake up at that time.
Social jet lag is not just about feeling off kilter.
It has tangible health consequences.
Chronic misalignment of our circadian rhythm
has been linked to various negative health outcomes,
and this alignment would be made worse
by reducing morning sunlight
under the permanent daylight savings time.
Some of the negative health outcomes
are things like mood disturbances,
like depression and anxiety,
irregularities in eating patterns and metabolism
resulting in weight gain and increased risk for diabetes.
Studies have associated misaligned circadian rhythms
with higher rates of heart disease,
and then of course there's problems with sleep deprivation
and trouble falling asleep at the right time.
So the bottom line here is that standard time
aligns more with our natural rhythm
of getting up with morning sun
and we don't have total control over what laws are passed.
And even if the Sunshine Protection Act
does not pass to make daylight savings time permanent,
we still have to deal with being on daylight savings time
for eight months of the year
unless a different law is passed
to switch to permanent standard time.
In the absence of that kind of law,
what can you do to improve your situation
if you are one who is negatively affected by this,
because some people are more sensitive than others?
You can expose yourself to artificial bright light
by using a bright light therapy device
within the first hour of waking up.
Bright light therapy
is actually an add-on treatment for depression,
but even if you're not depressed,
it can still boost your mood
and increase your morning energy and alertness.
There are many companies that make light boxes.
You want one that produces light
and an intensity of 10,000 lux,
and this is a standard intensity recommendation.
So a good light box should state clearly
in the product description that it delivers 10,000 lux.
And just to give you a point of reference,
ambient light, that's a mixture of direct and indirect sun,
measures around 10,000 to 20,000 lux,
whereas indoor light is only a hundred to 200 lux,
so that's why it's called bright light therapy.
And turning on your room lights in the morning
is not enough to offset the darkness
and the lack of sunlight.
Some devices will emit blue and or white light.
Blue light works too,
and it mimics the color and wavelength of sunlight.
But there have been some concerns
about whether long-term use of blue light
causes damage to your retina over time.
Your retina is the back of your eye.
Also, white light has been used more clinically
to treat depression,
and the broader spectrum of light
contains other light wavelengths
that might offer some therapeutic benefit.
Light therapy is generally safe,
but if you have an eye disease,
you should check with your doctor who's treating your eyes
to see if it's safe for you to use light therapy.
The amount of time recommended is 15 to 30 minutes.
The maximum is 45 to 60 minutes,
and that's usually for depression
and not for body clock realignment.
Also, it's probably hard enough
to find an extra 15 to 30 minutes in the morning,
much less an hour.
Last thing about using the light box,
you want to place the light either overhead
or at a 45 degree angle
so that you're not looking directly at it,
and you want to have the light
to be about an arm's length away.
If it's too far away, the light intensity drops off
and you may not get enough lux for it to be effective.
Thanks to the Mental Wellness Space Store
for supporting this video.
I am the creator of this online store
that offers products like canvas prints, wall posters,
tumblers, shirts, digital workbooks,
and other tools designed to promote mental wellness.
It's wellness woven into everyday life,
reflecting my mission to integrate mental wellbeing
into daily living.
It's about celebrating and elevating mental health.
And just as the shirt says,
mental health commands a seat at the table.
Join me in pulling up a chair
and bringing mental health into everyday conversation.
I hope you found this helpful.
Thanks for watching.
See you next time.