This Sunday, April 3, summer time will surprise some of the Mexicans who had not considered their arrival, which will govern in the coming months in their daily lives, until October 30. However, although the first few days will be a period of adaptation for a few, this alteration could affect certain sectors of the population severely.
In an interview with Infobae México, Dr. Daniel Coronel, a surgeon graduated from the Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), who has a master's degree in Medical Sciences in that educational unit, as well as a specialty in psychiatry from the I National Institute of Psychiatry “Ramón de la Fuente” Muñiz”; he said that some of the people who could suffer the greatest complications will be those who suffer from a chronic disease such as diabetes and hypertension. However, he pointed out that those who suffer from psychological disorders such as depression or anxiety also have possible effects. This is due to the need they have to ingest medicines at specific times.
“They are taking an hour away from us, relatively we are going to wake up earlier and go to sleep earlier than usual, but we are not used to that rhythm because of the previous schedule. Our body in the early days, due to this lag in the onset of sleep, will probably be difficult to sleep at night and probably not restorative,” said Dr. Daniel Coronel.
The doctor added that some of the main factors citizens will suffer with the change of schedule are tiredness, lethargy, lack of energy, mental health problems, failures in concentration, work memory and even appetite.
“Because of these alterations in circadian rhythms, there is a predisposition to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, mainly diabetes, mellitus and hypertension. Everything that has to do with the cyclical regulation of hormones is also altered by this adjustment in the schedule, including secretion of insulin, cortisol and melatotolin. Mentally, people who already suffer or who are predisposed to sleep problems, make this adjustment in the schedule, will be that there is a relapse of symptoms of insomnia or that the population suffers from insomnia,” he said.
Dr. Coronel mentioned that these effects have a general impact on Mexicans, regardless of their gender. However, he said that the main affected population is that population that is “in a productive stage at the work level”, older adults and even children who study and have the need to start their day late in the morning.
In addition, he stated that summer time alters our sleep hours considerably due to the production of a lag in our circadian circus. In addition, the health specialist emphasized the importance we attach to our hours of rest, since, according to his statements, “our brain is active and there are processes that occur during sleep, including protein metabolism at the brain level, memory consolidation and rest of our musculature”.
“It's so important because it allows our body to be regulated in different systems. If a person sleeps on average 7 hours, his life expectancy increases, but people who sleep little or so-called short sleepers, who sleep less than 6 hours a night, or people who due to the pace of life they lead restrict their hours of sleep to perform in their day-to-day activities, have a predisposition to die up to 20 years ahead of schedule”, he said.
According to Dr. Coronel, daylight saving time “affects our homeostasis” and stressed that people with greater biological vulnerability and who suffer serious mental disorders such as depression or anxiety, “probably have consequences that may affect, in the long term, their diagnosis and quality of life.”
Finally, Daniel Coronel commented that the health sector is one of the main affected by this fact, due to the long working hours they live every day.
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