That extra hour of sleep this weekend may not be as good for you as you think, UW professor says

Daylight saving time comes to an end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, which means an extra hour of sleep.

But how does that time change affect your body?

“Negatively. Even though we don’t hear it tick, all of us have an internal clock,” explained Anita Layton, a biology and mathematics professor at the University of Waterloo.

Whether it’s ‘spring forward’ or ‘fall back,’ Layton said it messes with our body’s clock.

“It tells you when you should wake up, why you should eat, when you should go to bed. And then light is a very important regulator of that circadian rhythm. So when you change the amount of light exposure that you're getting, you throw everything off,” said Layton.

Neither time change, she said, is ideal because they do pose some physical health risks.

“With daylight saving in spring, we see an increase in the number of heart attacks,” said Layton. “The week after time change, you tend to feel more hungry both in the fall and the spring … You have less leptin, which is the hormone that you want to feel satisfied after you eat.”

It may not come as a surprise there are impacts on your mental health too.

“Not having enough sunlight is not good for you. It makes your body less able to produce serotonin,” she says. “Vitamin D is a vitamin deficiency that is also associated with depression and fatigue.”

She explained that people who have different mood disorders tend to have a harder time with the time change because it is associated with seasonal depression.

So with the countdown on until clocks go back, Layton suggests people stick with the timing of their regular routines as much as possible when it comes to sleep, workouts and meals.

But Layton does have strong feelings about the bi-annual change.

“Just get rid of it. I’ll stay with daylight saving or standard. I don’t care. Just stick with one already.”