End of daylight savings time can bring health changes

Nov. 01--Now that we've lost an hour of early evening sunlight, it will become more important to find motivation to exercise, just one of the complex effects of the end of daylight-saving time, according to Dr. Paul Desan, head of the Winter Depression Research Clinic and professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine.

"As a physician, I personally think daylight-saving time is a good idea because it makes people exercise more," Desan said.

Sunday at 2 a.m. is the official time we set our clocks back one hour to return to Eastern Standard Time.

Desan said "the idea behind daylight-saving time in the summer" was that "we waste daylight. During daylight, "people are more active in the evening; they go out and they shop."

He doesn't advocate daylight-saving year-round, however, because at the mid-Atlantic latitude there still wouldn't be enough sunlight to make a difference. "The true scientific answer is, we have no definite answer as to whether daylight-saving time affects people's mood," he said.

"In the old days ... it saved money," Desan said. "Now incandescent lighting is not as much a part of our energy budget."

However, "2 or 3 percent of people have major depression every year," called seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, Desan said. Those people tend to sleep and eat more, although for some the effect is the opposite.

"We're seasonal animals," Desan said. "I think this is an important public health problem ... but light therapy works extremely well for most people," he said.

He said 15 percent to 20 percent of people are affected enough by the lack of winter light that they would consider treatment.

Desan said large, 10-lux medical grade light boxes are an effective treatment for SAD.

Call Ed Stannard at 203-680-9382. Do you have questions, feedback or ideas about our news coverage? Connect with New Haven Register editors at AskTheRegister.com.

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