Weaver Shell | Valencia (EFE).- Accumulated drowsiness, lack of concentration and even an increase in traffic accidents are some of the consequences of the sleep deficit caused by the time change, a change that, for an expert in sleep disorders, ” it does not make any sense. The ideal would be to stay in the winter schedule.
This was confirmed to EFE by Gonzalo Pin Arboledas, head of the sleep unit at Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia, who explains that the time change that comes into force this weekend “gives us more light at night and delays bedtime, but the time we wake up remains the same, which is associated with the increase in chronic sleep deficit in general in the population”.
At dawn from Saturday to Sunday of the weekend, the clocks go from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m., a time advance that will lengthen daylight hours but, at least during the first week, will have a “special impact” in babies and the elderly.
Progressively delay the onset of sleep
According to the expert in sleep disorders, this time change, in Spain, “separates us even more from our natural time in terms of the meridian” and, in the case of the most sensitive groups, he advises delaying the onset of sleep “in a progressive”.
“They will have more difficulties in initiating sleep and maintaining it, so that during the first week or so they will have a greater feeling of drowsiness,” adds the coordinator of the Paediatrics service at Hospital Quirónsalud Valencia.
As he explains, the external light sends the message to our brain that we are tired and have been awake for a long time, but that with that light “it is not the time to go to bed.”
More traffic accidents with the time change
Also at other ages there may be “accumulated sleepiness”, since we lose about half an hour of sleep until our body adapts again, although in mature age “we have more tools to deal with this situation than in the two stages extremes of life.
In fact, Gonzalo Pin points out, some statistics indicate that during the first days after the time change there is an increase in traffic accidents due to drowsiness caused by lack of sleep.
In the case of children and adolescents, concentration can also be reduced in the early hours of the day, especially if they have the toughest subjects, because “at those ages, who have a tendency to delay their own biological clock, they are still behind more if we put more light and more distraction capacity at the last minute ”.
Supporter of leaving winter time
Asked if he would be in favor of not changing the time, Pin settled it emphatically: “Absolutely, it doesn’t make any sense”, and explained that all scientific societies consider that “the ideal, contrary to what people want, would be to stay with winter time, which brings us closer to our meridian”.
“People say that this way they have more daylight hours and can go out more, but that is actually a short-term gain; chronic sleep deficit ultimately costs the country time and money because it increases type 2 diabetes, obesity, and accidents. This has a cost to society, ”she warns.
Although the European Union recommended that the Member States end these time changes, it did so before the pandemic and the arrival of the coronavirus prevented that decision from being taken.
Two out of four Spaniards have trouble sleeping
According to Pin, two out of four Spaniards have sleep difficulties, although there are no statistics indicating when the incidence of these problems increases during the weeks or months following the time changes.
What is true, he adds, is that as a result of the pandemic there has been an increase in patient attendance at sleep units due to problems with falling asleep, something that is “intimately related” to mental health.
As he explains, Spain is the country with the highest consumption of hypnotics, something that is conditioned by our schedules, since we Spaniards tend to go to bed late and, nevertheless, we get up very early.
“We sleep about 40 minutes less than in the rest of European countries due to our late dinner or television schedules, and this time change -he warns- favors this loss of sleep more”.
