Conflicting Daylight Savings statistics may be confusing to people. (PHOTO COURTESY Wiki Commons)
By Samantha Martin
Recent reports indicate the first business day back after daylight savings shows an increase in traffic accidents and heart attacks, yet Ontario Provincial Police found different results.
The Globe and Mail reports a survey that shows there is an increase in traffic accidents after the time change because people lose an hour of sleep.
Humber news reporter Matthew Creed interviewed OPP Const Dave Woodford about the results and the force’s statistics gathered over the past three years on collisions on the Monday after the daylight savings time.
“We went back and looked at 2012, 2011, and 2010 and we show a decrease in collisions,” said Woodford.
A Swedish study released in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2008 showed an approximate seven per cent increase in heart attacks in the first three business days after daylight savings.
Humber College athletic advisor and personal trainer, Monique Haan, said she thinks the statistics may be a coincidence because heart attacks don’t usually happen without previous health issues.
Haan said a good way of beating fatigue due to loss of sleep is physical activity.
Those who usually work out in the morning and may be too tired from losing sleep may want to switch their routine to the evening Haan said.