What the twice-yearly clock changes do to your health

Health analysts say changing the time is bad for our health, and now Washington state lawmakers are voting on whether to stop it.

Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday morning in Washington state.

Changing the clocks deals a blow to people's sleep patterns, according to analysis by the Washington State Board of Health. The analysis shows the time change can interrupt the sleep cycle for up to a week.

Caitlin Lang-Perez is a health analyst with the board. Lang-Perez says that increases the health risk for certain people.

After the time changes in the spring, incidents of heart attacks increases by about 30 percent. Strokes also increase in the two days afterward.

"That loss of one hour might seem inconsequential," says Lang-Perez. "However data suggests a cumulative effect of sleep loss over at least the first week, which may increase incidents of stroke and heart attack."

She says a few populations appear to have higher risk for adverse health events around that time, including "those with low cholesterol and triglycerides, and those with hypertension and diabetes."

The analysis indicates people who already have trouble sleeping, such as children and the elderly, may have more trouble adjusting after the time change.

Lang-Perez says the board of health also studied impacts on traffic wrecks, depression, and work injuries, but those results were not conclusive.

A proposed bill in the Washington legislature would place the state on Daylight Saving Time year-round. Opponents, however, say it would make the mornings too dark, putting kids at risk.

That's because permanent Daylight Saving Time would make evenings lighter in the fall and winter, but mornings darker. In Seattle, elementary school children would wind up walking in the dark more often.

The bill would need Congressional approval, and would possibly go to a public vote in Washington state.

Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia lawmakers are also voting on whether to use one time-zone year round.