Brewed Fresh Daily

"[A]study of traffic accidents throughout Canada in 1991 and 1992 by Stanley Coren of the University of British Columbia before, during, and immediately after the so-called 'spring forward' when DST begins in April. Alarmingly, he found an eight percent jump in traffic accidents on the Monday after clocks are moved ahead. He attributes the jump to the lost hour of sleep. In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, Coren explained, 'These data show that small changes in the amount of sleep that people get can have major consequences in everyday activities.' He undertook the study as a follow up to research showing that even an hour's change can disrupt sleep patterns and 'persist for up to five days after each time shift.' Other observers attribute the huge spike in accidents on the first Monday of DST to the sudden change in the amount of light during driving times. Regardless of the reason, there is no denying that changing our clocks has a significant cost in human lives."