Clock-Changing Solutions

We’ve become so obsessed with sleep, even our watches can track the amount of quality sleep we get, so we can expect something unusual tonight. We go to bed at our usual time and for most of us in the U.S., we wake up one hour earlier than planned because the clocks have changed. As someone who adapts to sleep changes well, I empathize with those who don’t. Here are a couple of solutions I’ve found, one societal and one personal.

Don’t Change the Clocks

Researchers from Stanford undertook a very complicated theoretical study. By using county solar light patterns, time policy, and health data with circadian models, they calculated the relationship of those variable conditions and diseases. Let’s just say this would be impossible without the number crunching ability of today’s computers.

What they found was that a shift to Standard Time year-round would decrease the occurrence of stroke and obesity. A permanent shift to Daylight Savings Time would also decrease the occurrence of stroke and obesity as well, although not to the same extent. It should be noted that the impact was dependent on both latitude and longitude of people within the time zone.

How big of an impact? With Standard Time it could potentially reduce the risk of obesity by 0.78% and the risk of stroke by 0.09%. Not a big deal? Based on the current population, that could mean a reduction of the cases of obesity by 2.6 million cases and 300,000 cases of stroke per year in the U.S. While this is an emotional as well as political land mine for many proponents and opponents of time changes, this is one variable that deserves consideration.

Naps

Getting some additional sleep, even as little as a 20-minute nap, can be beneficial. Researchers in Greece found that people who took a nap in the afternoon had a lower rate of death from cardiovascular disease (CVD). How much lower? 37%!

This was confirmed by a study published last month suggesting that naps under 30 minutes reduced CVD outcomes—however, naps longer than 60 minutes increased the risk of CVD events. Speculation was that long naps interfered with nighttime sleep patterns.

The Bottom Line

We all look for an easy way to reduce our risk of heart attacks. Sometimes, the simplest solution is the correct one, and you can’t get much simpler than sleep. It can be challenging to fit in a nap during the day, but if you can do it, it may help you to be more effective in what you’re doing and lower your risk of cardiovascular disease and possibly other diseases as well. As for a permanent switch to Standard Time for more early sunlight? That will be open for debate, so we have to do what we can control.

What are you prepared to do today?

        Dr. Chet

References:
1. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2508293122
2. Arch Intern Med. 2007 Feb 12;167(3):296-301. doi: 10.1001/archinte.167.3.296
3. Pub Health Rev. 2026. doi: 10.3389/phrs.2026.1609013.