Solar time 2021, mini jet lag and mood swings: expert advice

It is done, from 3 o’clock this night, hands back one hour for the transition to solar time 2021. But the farewell to summer time, with gradually shorter days, can also cause some disturbance: they are not infrequent sleep problems, mood changes, stress and – in severe cases – heart problems. Liborio Parrino, head of the Sleep Medicine Center and director of Neurology at the University Hospital of Parma, explains to Adnkronos Salute how best to overcome this ‘mini jet lag’. “The change of time is a small jet lag, a sleep disorder that we reproduce every six months. This is why melatonin can help us speed up the process of adjusting to the new time”, he points out. “For it to take effect, however – explains Parrino – you have to take it at specific times, so if we lose an hour of light as when we travel east, we have to take it the night before, two hours before going to bed, to anticipate falling asleep. On the contrary, when we gain an hour of light we have to take it in the morning. And if we have a pet – ironically – we should also give it to him to convince him that it is not yet time to eat or pee “. In addition to the problem of sleep. however, the shortening of the day also causes negative effects on mood. “Light is a powerful antidepressant – recalls the neurologist – so much so that many psychiatric hospitals have windows facing east so that the sunlight from dawn can enter the patients’ room. It is known that light has effects on the mood and in fact in the countries of northern Europe depression is much more frequent “. To avoid moral dejection, if we suffer a lot for this change of time we can run for cover with “the lamps at 10 thousand lux which are lamps – explains the doctor – which are used precisely to combat the melancholy due to the lack of appropriate lighting”. For the neurologist we should “leave the clock always the same, yes if always leave the solar time or always the legal one but we must not move these blessed hands every six months which are a psychological and organic trauma for the most fragile or more sensitive to this type of oscillation “.” Even the American academy of sleep medicine, perhaps the most important world authority – remembers Parrino – last year published a work in which the leading experts who met said ‘just change watch'”. But between daylight saving time and solar time which one would be preferable to keep? “We as sleep scientists – explains the doctor – are more in favor of solar time because it helps people to go to bed a little earlier in the evening because it gets dark earlier, but the important thing is to keep the same time all the time. year”. “We have to recover the time of the seasons that we have completely lost – says Parrino -. There is a time of light and a time of darkness. They all talk about the environment and then when we have to put into practice a relationship with nature a little more direct and sincere there are objections. The right time – he insists – is the solar one, because he commands, we do not command. The economic excuse according to which in this way you save because you consume less energy – he says – now no longer makes sense: with the dark the activities continue with lights on, air conditioning, open rooms, in short, it seems to me an inelegant and unclear speech “.” We know that in the weeks following the time changes, as well as on Monday, there is an increase in cases of myocardial infarction all over the world. So where you change the clock there is a very heavy price “, continues the neurologist.” All studies agree – says the expert – that there is an increase of the risk of acute heart disease in the period following the time change. And cardiological risk isn’t the only physical repercussion. “We also have psychological stress, those suffering from depression can have this immediate shift that can lead to worsening. A vegetative and hormonal stress because everything that concerns the difficult balance of hormone control is regulated by the sleep-wake rhythm and by light “. Good news for the night owls though. “The ‘owls’ if it gets dark before or after dark are not affected that much” while “the ‘larks'”, or early risers, “suffer much more from the change of time”. WHAT TO DO WITH THE CHILDREN, THE WORD AT THE PAEDIATRAM What to do with the little ones? Elena Bozzola, national secretary of the Italian Society of Pediatrics (Sip), explains this to Adnkronos Salute. “The arrival of solar time this year, compared to past ones, has an advantage: it falls on the occasion of the long weekend of All Saints. Children of elementary and middle schools who could have discomfort related to the phase of sleep for the change rhythms, they have two days to adapt. And this will facilitate the acquisition of the new schedules by reducing the inconvenience “, underlines the expert. With two days at their disposal” parents can try to modify the schedules more gradually – adds Bozzola – remembering that, in any case, all children adapt within a week “. In general, the change of hours “has no effect on the very young. Children and young people who go to school, elementary and middle school in particular, may instead be affected. We know well that when the cycle of rest and the amount of hours slept is altered, he can have irritability, restlessness and stress. And this can represent further discomfort for children who are already suffering from the long pandemic season “. But the change in schedule, adds the pediatrician, “can also represent a golden opportunity for parents to exploit to try to regulate even better the sleep phase of those children who tend to go to bed later, accustoming them to go to bed a little earlier. But for all this you must not be in a hurry. Each child is a case in itself, you must not insist on making them fall asleep or making them adapt too quickly to the new schedules, you must leave them the necessary time “.