According to the American Heart Association, transfusion can also affect your heart and brain.
Hospitalisation increases with the irregular heart rhythm pattern known as atrial fibrillation, as well as heart attacks and strokes, in the first few days of daylight saving time.
“Daylight saving time sounds like a kind of jet lag from time zone travel,” said Dr. Angela Holiday Bell, a paediatrician and certified clinical sleep specialist.
“Your body needs time to re-adapt to a new cycle of light/darkness, so it can be hard on the body and hard to sleep,” Holiday Bell said.
She said this cycle, also known as the circadian rhythm, is a finely tuned system our bodies use; to organise time.
For most people, this cycle takes about 24 hours and 15 minutes.
“It dictates all the processes that happen in your body — including sleeping, waking and digestion,” Holiday Bell said. Even your immune system is controlled by your circadian rhythm, meaning “when you lose an hour, you lose some immune function as well.”
Sleep deprivation can also slow the executive function of the brain, which explains the increase in car accidents seen as timing shifts in daylight.
