Psychologist urges drivers to plan ahead for Daylight Savings Time
By Nelson Daily Staff
As people prepare to spring forward one hour on Saturday, keep the effect of the time change in mind and adjust your life, and driving, accordingly, cautions one psychologist.
“Studies show that the switch into Daylight Savings Time can have a dramatic effect on disrupting our regular sleep cycle,” said Dr. John Vavrik, a psychologist with ICBC.
“The transition into Daylight Savings Time puts us out of sync with our circadian rhythm and this can pose some unique dangers on our roads.”
The biggest impacts can be felt on some of the key skills that affect the quality of our driving: poorer concentration, alertness behind the wheel and reaction time to potential hazards.
“The real danger is that people believe if they don’t feel tired, then they aren’t fatigued,” said Vavrik. “However, while you may feel fine, your circadian rhythm can still be significantly disrupted which can affect your alertness while driving.”
The impact of the loss of an hour sleep can lead to us being impaired as drivers. When most of us think of impaired driving, we think of people who drink and drive. But anything that decreases your ability to judge the situation around you and to react appropriately can be dangerous.
“Fatigue is a serious impairment – its real risk is that we don’t often realize how much it affects us when we drive,” said Vavrik.
“Fatigue can be especially dangerous when combined with other distractions behind the wheel. You really need to limit any potential distractions at this time more than ever.”
To help ease into the time adjustment, follow the time change on Saturday night, and not just on the Sunday morning.
“We tend to move our clocks forward an hour on the Saturday evening and then when we look at the clock and see it’s 11 p.m. we say, ‘Oh, it’s really only 10 p.m.,’ so we believe we have an extra hour to stay up,” said Vavrik. “In reality, that extra hour is gone by the morning.”
Whether you’re a driver, cyclist or pedestrian, keep to your regular sleep/wake cycle and get some good sleep this weekend.
