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posted by hubie on Wednesday October 30, @04:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the sun-is-the-same-in-a-relative-way dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

A group of researchers in the UK affiliated with the BSS (British Sleep Society) published a paper this week calling for the permanent abolition of Daylight Saving Time (DST) and adherence to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in large part because modern evidence suggests having that extra hour of sunlight in the evenings is worse for our health than we thought back in the 1970s when the concept was all the rage in Europe.

Not only does GMT more closely align with the natural day/light cycle in the UK, the boffins assert, but decades of research into sleep and circadian rhythms have been produced since DST was enacted that have yet to be considered.

The human circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle our bodies go through, drives a lot about our health beyond sleep. It regulates hormone release, gene expression, metabolism, mood (who isn't grumpier when waking up in January?), and the like. In short, it's important. Messing with that rhythm by forcing ourselves out of bed earlier for several months out of the year can have lasting effects, the researchers said.

According to their review of recent research, having light trigger our circadian rhythms in the mornings to wake us up is far more important than an extra hour of light in the evenings. In fact, contrary to the belief that an extra hour of light in the evenings is beneficial, it might actually cause health problems by, again, mucking about with the human body's understanding of what time it is and how we ought to feel about it.

"Disruption of the daily synchronization of our body clocks causes disturbances in our physiology and behavior … which leads to negative short and long-term physical and mental health outcomes," the authors said. 

That, and we've just plain fooled ourselves into thinking it benefits us in any real way.

[...] And for the love of sleep, the researchers beg, don't spring forward permanently.

"Mornings are the time when our body clocks have the greatest need for light to stay in sync," said Dr Megan Crawford, lead author and senior lecturer in psychology at University of Strathclyde. "At our latitudes there is simply no spare daylight to save during the winter months and given the choice between natural light in the morning and natural light in the afternoon, the scientific evidence favors light in the morning."


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday October 31, @02:41PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday October 31, @02:41PM (#1379599)

    The clue on this side of the pond was when they moved from annual cleanings to mostly recommending two cleanings a year, some of the greedier ones started recommending three.

    I saw an article that attributed it in part to the success of fluoridation at reducing caries (cavities to drill and fill) and other improvements in oral hygiene, awareness of sugar-rot, etc. Some dentists started drilling and filling things that they never would have touched in the past. In the 1970s, when my parents got dental insurance for the first time through their work, the same dentist that had been not drilling on us for 4 years prior suddenly "found" two to 4 cavities in each and every family member, but don't worry, your copay is minimal, let's take care of these right away. My two were so minor that I didn't need any of the local anesthesia that they normally gave - I expect insurance was billed for it anyway, but that stuff costs money - best not to waste it on indentations so minor they probably should never have been drilled in the first place, much less packed with mercury amalgam.

    Others branched out into whatever products they could hawk - I had one try to sell me a $400 custom bite plate - first clue: not covered by insurance - to sleep with so I wouldn't "destroy my teeth" grinding them in the night. That was over 30 years ago, haven't destroyed my teeth yet. Deep scale cleaning services, covered by insurance, were one my wife agreed to that I didn't. She has had 4 root canal crowns since then, I haven't even had a cavity filled. They did something crazy filling in the gumline recession gaps to her that I also declined - that caused her nothing but grief in the 5 years after that was done, they finally all chipped out and she's back to normal receding gums like the rest of us instead of the mess that those gap fillers created.

    There wasn't much that I did like about the last town I lived in, but we did have a good dentist there. Sensible advice, no-nonsense cleanings, no oversell of services. We moved 11 years ago, I believe I tried 3 dentists in this town before giving up in despair, it has been at least 7 years since I have even gone for a cleaning. I started using something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Sonicare-Toothbrush-Rechargeable-HX3681/dp/B09LD8T445 [amazon.com] with regular toothpaste, it's not quite the same as a good scraping with metal tools by a hygienist, but I just don't feel like going and listening to a "professional" give me scare stories about how all my teeth are going to start rotting and falling out any day if I don't get on twice a year cleanings and hard-sell additional services rotation right away.

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