話說，這星期天日光節約時間結束，全實驗室的人為了這將多出來的一小時打從心裡高興著。
（謎之聲：不過是四月被偷走的那一個小時還回來有什麼好高興的啊！）
不過，雖然據說日光節約時間可以減少能源消耗，卻是有害人體健康的喔！今天最新一期的《新英格蘭醫學雜誌》裡，瑞典的研究人員分析1987到2006這20年間，夏日時間開始和結束後那一個禮拜，急性心肌梗塞的發生率，發現日光節約時間開始的那一個星期，疾病發生率相較於平常日高，此效果對女性較顯著；反之，結束後的那一個星期，疾病發生率較平常日低，且對男性影響較大。另外，無論春秋，日光節約時間對小於65歲的人影響比年長者明顯。
所以睡飽真的有益健康！
這篇論文也提到，在上個世紀，人類睡眠長度從平均一天9小時降至7.5小時。這麼說起來，讓人類得以變成夜貓子，發明電燈的愛迪生，原來是現代人慢性病一堆的始作俑者之一啊！
相關連結：
Seattle Times
Thursday, October 30, 2008 - Page updated at 04:03 PM
Is setting clock back good for you ticker?
Los Angeles Times
Turning your clock back one hour Sunday for the end of daylight-saving time could do your own ticker some good.
Researchers have found a 5 percent drop in heart-attack deaths and hospitalizations the day after clocks are reset each year to standard time, according to a study in the new issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.
The Swedish researchers also found that the onset of daylight-saving time in the spring appears to increase the risk of heart attacks.
Physicians can add daylight-saving time to the list of everyday events that affect heart attacks, said Dr. Ralph Brindis, a vice president of the American College of Cardiology who practices in Oakland, Calif., and was not involved in the study. The risk also rises on holidays and anniversaries, although no one knows why, he said.
"This study is fascinating," Brindis said.
The culprit is probably sleep. Scientists have known that sleep deprivation is bad for the heart — the body responds by boosting blood pressure, heart rate and the tendency to form dangerous clots — but they didn't realize one hour could have a measurable effect.
Sleep can affect the heart through changes in blood pressure, inflammation, blood clotting, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood vessels, said Dr. Lori Mosca, director of preventive cardiology at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She suggested anxiety from changes in routine may also be a factor, in addition to loss of sleep.
More than 1.5 billion people change their clocks twice a year to make the most of the available sunlight. William Willett, a British builder, proposed the idea in 1905 after watching Londoners sleep through so many perfectly good hours of morning sunshine. He also complained that his afternoon golf games were cut short by an unnecessarily early dusk. The idea gained traction in 1916 as World War I turned coal into a precious resource.
As they were setting their clocks ahead in March, two Stockholm-based epidemiologists who study the relationship between heart attacks and sleep decided to investigate the effect of moving into and out of daylight-saving time. Dr. Imre Janszky, of the Karolinska Institute, and Dr. Rickard Ljung, of Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare, examined data from the Swedish Myocardial Infarction Register, a catalog of all heart attacks in Sweden that resulted in hospitalization or death.
The researchers counted the heart attacks on the seven days after clocks were changed from 1987 to 2006. They also looked up the number of heart attacks a few weeks before and after each of those days, calculated the average and made a comparison.
The researchers found the typical number of heart attacks on an autumn Monday was 2,140, but that fell to an average of 2,038 on the Monday after daylight-saving time ended, a 5 percent decline. The rate also dipped on five of the other six days of the week, although none of those drops was large enough to be considered statistically significant.
In the spring, the number of heart attacks spiked on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after daylight-saving time began. The increases ranged from 6 percent to 10 percent.
Dr. Martha Daviglus, a professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, cautioned that it was frivolous to worry much about daylight-saving time when so many people still fail to address the basics, such as smoking and overeating.
"Ninety-nine percent of the people that die of myocardial infarctions, they have risk factors for cardiovascular disease," she said. "Changing the clock, in my opinion, is nothing compared to the major risk factors."
Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
