Should You Lose Sleep Over Daylight Saving Time?
What you can do to ease disruption to your slumber
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wisdom and wellness, with actionable stories by Wise & Well’s team of journalists, topical experts and practicing professionals. This newsletter is written by the publication’s editor, Robert Roy Britt. We begin this week with a brief note about that perennial pain in the neck…
When clocks spring forward this Sunday, March 9, millions of people will get less sleep than normal. That’s unhealthy, studies have found. Among the known effects from past research, which I wrote about here:
Auto accidents spike 6% for the first week.
The number of heart attacks on the first Monday increases a whopping 25%.
Worker productivity falls and workplace accidents rise.
Giving to charitable organizations drops 10% in that first week, but only in states where the clocks change. Grumpy and less generous, are we?
Other research finds one night of insufficient sleep—at any point in the year—can impair mood, memory and decision-making the next day.
The best defense against the change is to set your clock ahead before you go to bed Saturday night, and aim to go to bed somewhere between when you would have and what the clock now indicates. Split the difference, and ideally wake up when your body is ready. (If you read this before Friday night, try going to bed a little earlier then usual so that you can spread the change over two nights.)
If you’re groggy Monday, try to take it easy, avoid making important decisions, and then aim to return to a regular bedtime and wake-up time the rest of the week—consistency is one of the best sleep aids.
Explore More: Wise & Well has tons of resources to help you deal with the time change and sleep challenges in general:
Why Women Over 30 Should Lose Weight Like a Man
Losing weight means cutting calories and doing aerobics, right? Makes sense…. until you get a fuller understanding of human biology, which this writer has done. Turns out women have long been misled not only about how they should look but how they should eat and exercise. Anyone who wants to shed some pounds — guys, the means you, too—should work on building muscle and eating… more. Story, by May Pang
Are Phones Really Dirtier Than Toilet Seats?
The writer and scientist went down an internet rabbit hole, via the Wayback Machine, to find the source of a claim that the typical smartphone is 10 times dirtier than the typical toilet seat. His investigation led to the scientist at the source of the claim, and I don’t want to issue a spoiler, because there’s so much science to learn in the journey to the answer. Story by Sam Westreich, PhD
Do You Really Need Testosterone Replacement Therapy?
Men worry a lot about testosterone levels. That concern is leveraged in marketing tactics for testosterone replacement therapy, which in the US is available by prescription only. The result: Guys who don’t need it can easily get it, and the dosages prescribed are often too high, set by doctors that may have received little to no actual training in the matter. Story by Dr. Julian Barkan
Failing Taste Buds Can Forewarn of Serious Health Issues
When reports emerged early in the pandemic that people with Covid had lost their sense of smell and taste, it seemed to many of us like a unique symptom. But a declining ability to taste is more common than I realized, and can be a symptom of many conditions or even a sign of problems to come, new research reveals. Story by Annie Foley
The Crisis In Primary Care: Never Enough Time
Doctors don’t have enough time to properly diagnose patients’ problems, which often leads to unnecessary tests and referrals to specialists. This doctor explains the problem, and offers a compelling solution: direct primary care (DPC), also known as concierge practice. You’re immediately thinking it’s probably too expensive, right? Not necessarily true, he argues. And DPC could help you become healthier. Story by Stephen Schimpff MD, MACP
The Heavenly Benefits of a Digital Sabbath
We’ve all heard we should cut back on screen time. Blah blah blah. But I like the idea of a digital Sabbath, where instead of a vague notion of spending less time with our phones or less time on social media, we truly cut the virtual cord for a day—on at least one specific digital behavior we know isn’t healthy—and just see how blissful it can be to disconnect. Story by Kathleen Murphy
Don’t Blame It All On Trauma
There seems to be a lot of trauma going around these days. Much of it is real, leading to diagnoses of PTSD and other mental health conditions that can be improved with therapy and other treatments. But sometimes ADHD or other conditions are misdiagnosed as trauma, which leads to ineffective treatments. This psychiatrist explains the trauma caused by calling everything trauma. Story by John Kruse MD, PhD
How to Redesign Your Reality
Your reality is not the same as my reality. Even if we witnessed the exact same event together, we’d construct different versions of it in our minds, experiments have revealed over and over. Sounds a bit like virtual reality, eh?. And if it’s virtual, then it’s changeable, this neuroscientist/psychologist explains. Hmm! So what about your current reality would you like to change? Story by Dr CJ Yatawara
Men and Women Experience Pain Differently
No two people experience pain in exactly the same way, but there are stark difference (on average) between women and men, with both acute and chronic pain. This writer, who deals with plenty of pain, uses his own perspective as a starting point to explain the science behind sex differences in pain perception. My bet is every reader will find something surprising in the details. Story by Randall H. Duckett
Are Neurodivergence and Eating Disorders Related?
Many human conditions are intertwined, be they physical or mental. Among them, neurodivergence has long been linked to eating disorders. But as this psychologist explains, people with autism, ADHD, learning disabilities and other neurodiverse traits see and process the world differently, and there is a tendency among them for higher rates of preoccupation with food, weight and body image. Story by Gail Post, Ph.D.
The Courage to be Creative
If you wish to create something, the first step is to overcome your doubts and fears. “Creativity takes courage,” the French artist Henri Matisse once said. And with that in mind, I’ve taken up painting again after several decades. The process of creating each painting is at once humbling satisfying, and always instructive. So I’d like to inspire you to have the courage to pursue whatever creative urges you might have, whether painting, writing, sculpting or whatever. I’ve cited science that explains the hurdles and also reveals the benefits. Story by Robert Roy Britt
The Problem with Gluten-Free Food
At first glance, gluten-free food options may appear to be healthy alternatives for everyone. Look closer, however, and you’re likely to see lengthy ingredient lists of unpronouncable stuff and, worse, lots of sugar or unhealthy fats. Proof that “gluten-free” is often a marketing technique is when you see it on, say, a meat product. Meat has no gluten! Anyway, read this to learn if you really need this stuff (and some people do). Story by Sachin Rustgi
Microplastics Now Clog Our Bodies and Brains
Microscopic bits of plastic are now found in every nook and cranny of the planet, even in the air, and manufacturers make them on purpose to put in your toothpaste and facial scrubs. We ingest and inhale them, and now they’re in our bloodstreams and brains, even the first poops of newborn babies. The suspected health consequences are mounting: cancer, heart disease, premature births and dementia. But there is much you can do to help curb the output and lower your intake, even as the problem is rapidly growing worse. Story by Robert Roy Britt
I hope we’ve helped make your tomorrow a little better than today.
Cheers,
Rob
DST should be cancelled.