JACKSONVILLE, Fla – Time to get adjusted to a new sleep pattern this weekend as we switch our clocks back one hour Sunday night.
We are in Daylight Saving Time, otherwise known as summer time, and we leave it behind this weekend for Standard Time.
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The tilt of the Earth's axis in the northern hemisphere angles us away from the sun as the planet revolves around the star.
Days are getting shorter so that by the end of December Jacksonville has about 4 hours less sunlight than the longest day of the year on June 21.
The time shift is more than a lifestyle inconvenience, public health is at risk: switching twice per year results in more accidents and heart attacks afterwards.
There is a national proposal led by Senator Marco Rubio to stop the time switch by adopting permanent daylight-saving time.
But this brings dark mornings that can be unhealthy and dangerous.
Florida had used year-round daylight saving once in 1974, during President Nixon's attempt to end an energy crisis but it faced backlash after several children died in traffic accidents going to school in darkness.
Thousands of scientists propose abolishing Daylight Saving Time altogether saying Standard Time is better since waking up to morning light is essential to our internal clocks and proper sleep.
Without it people are more susceptible to cancer, diabetes, and obesity.
The Society for Research on Biological Rhythms will be hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit on Friday, November 1 from 3 pm – 6 pm (ET), during which they will address your related questions on the impacts of time change on health.
Approximately 70 countries utilize Daylight Saving Time but Japan, India, and China are the only major industrialized countries that do not observe some form of daylight saving.