[tz] Scientists, and Journalists and Boomtown Mondays

[Steffen Nurpmeso]

  Researchers have spotted some curious links between daylight
  saving and our health, including [2]fewer heart attacks[/2] when
  the clocks go back. For others the extra hour in bed this
  weekend [3]is a time to embrace our inner sloth[/3], the
  undisputed champion of indolence, and a chance to explore our
  history of laziness.

    [2] http://theconversationuk.cmail2.com/t/r-l-ztyhlht-iduidjkttk-j/
    [3] http://theconversationuk.cmail2.com/t/r-l-ztyhlht-iduidjkttk-t/

[2] says:

  In 2008, researchers examined the influence of these transitions
  on the incidence of heart attacks across several years of
  hospital admissions data. They focused on the two weeks before
  and after the clocks changed. Worryingly, they found a spike in
  the number of reported heart attacks after the transition to DST
  in the spring. In contrast, after moving out of daylight savings
  time in the autumn this trend was reversed.

Worryingly when i walk through the forests in spring (around that
time) i see a lot of heart-attacked mice which collapsed while
crossing sunny forest roads.
Note (just in case you never faced this mystery yourself) it must
be sunny and warm for that to happen.  I always feel sad when
i see those corpses, after six to eight months of starvation and
piercing cold, died in the first real warmth of spring!  Likewise
it seems right now many of us (here in Darmstadt) don't want to
see the last leaves fall and prefer the everlasting cold instead
((([4]))).

Well.  The actual data that backs that story above [5] is
supported by the "Swedish Council of Working Life and Social
Research, Ansgarius Foundation, King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria's
Foundation, and the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation", and it
also reads

  Our data suggest that vulnerable people might benefit from
  avoiding sudden changes in their biologic rhythms.

  It has been postulated that people in Western societies are
  chronically sleep deprived, since the average sleep duration
  decreased from 9.0 to 7.5 hours during the 20th century.4
  Therefore, it is important to examine whether we can achieve
  beneficial effects with prolonged sleep. The finding that the
  possibility of additional sleep seems to be protective on the
  first workday after the autumn shift is intriguing.

It follows frightening talk about work on Mondays, so better read
it: Not before Tuesday!
Have a nice weekend.

  [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j-8VcGjMxU
      (Tiger Lillies - Autumn Leaves)
  [5] http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc0807104

--steffen