Spring Buzzing!!

After a chilly, grey start to the day, the sunshine returned this afternoon much to this bee’s delight. Unlike me, he was very busy, buzzing away in the heather. After a bad night, I had to postpone my plans for a belated Mothering Sunday afternoon tea outing, and have had a quiet pottering day. It always takes me a while to get used to the change of the clocks, and apparently I’m not the only one. There was an interesting article in The Times this Saturday, which I’ve copied below if you’re interested:


“The clocks go forward for the start of British Summer Time (BST) early tomorrow morning. What we lose with an hour’s sleep we gain with an extra hour of daylight in the evenings — yet there is a growing realisation that the hour of lost sleep can be dangerous, adding to the argument that we should stick to one time regimen all year.

The human body has a circadian rhythm — the body clock — that is driven by the daily cycle of daylight and night darkness. This has a powerful effect on health and wellbeing. Although losing an hour’s sleep does not sound much, it can have a significant impact and take days to recover from.

One effect is a spike in the number of road accidents in the days immediately after the clock change. That may seem puzzling, because the extra hour of daylight in the evening should make the roads safer, especially for pedestrians who are easier to see. However, it is thought that motorists become more tired after the clock change, making them more accident prone.

The loss of an hour’s sleep also leads to an increase in heart attacks. A study in Sweden highlighted a 5 per cent increase in heart attacks in the three weekdays after the clocks go forward.

A more recent US study found a more striking surge in heart attacks — a 24 per cent increase on the Monday after the clocks go forward compared with other Mondays in the year.

One suggestion is that the heart is under more stress from an hour’s less sleep. In contrast, there was a substantial decrease in heart attacks in October when the clocks go back and we get an extra hour of sleep. However, strokes increase by 8 per cent with the March and October clock changes.

In a culture where we are often told that we need more sleep, the start of BST adds another burden on the national sleep debt and on our health.

Is it worth bothering with the time change?”