Wednesday October 29, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A
Swedish study suggests that sleeping for an extra hour may drastically reduce
risk of heart attack.
The study found that when clocks were set back an hour on
Monday, the number of heart attacks dropped probably because people had an
extra hour to sleep.
The study found the opposite effect when clocks were set
one hour forward in the spring.
The rate
of heart attacks increased during the week, particularly the first three days
after the start of daylight saving time.
The study was published on Thursday in New England
Journal of Medicine.
For the study, Imre Janszky of the Karolinska Institute
and Rickard Ljung of Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare examined the
effect of the disruptions to sleep and the change in the body's internal clock
by a time change on heart attack risk.
They went through data on heart attacks for a period of
20 years between 1987 and 2006 and found that the rate of heart attacks
increased 5 percent in the first week with 6 percent increase on Monday and
Wednesday and 10 percent increase on Tuesday after clocks were set forward one
hour in the spring.
They also found that in the autumn, when clocks were set
back one hour, the rate of heart attack dipped 5 percent on Monday although the
rate for the first week remained pretty much the same.
In the U.S. daylight saving time ends this year at 2 a.m.
Sunday
Clock shifts
disrupt sleep and reduce its efficiency. Effects on seasonal adaptation of the
circadian rhythm can be severe and last for weeks. A 2008 study found that
although male suicide rates rise in the weeks after the spring transition, the
relationship weakened greatly after adjusting for season.--wikipedia
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