In a culture that glorifies hustle, sleep is often the first thing we sacrifice. Staying up late to work, study or squeeze more out of the day can feel productive, and many wear their lack of sleep as a badge of honour.
But what if losing even a single hour of shut-eye is enough to affect your heart, impair your judgement, and alter how your body functions? Research suggests that sleep is far from a luxury – it’s one of the most fundamental pillars of good health.
Dr Vijay Vendra Prakash, a general practitioner with the NHS who specialises in longevity medicine, is breaking down why consistently getting a full eight hours of sleep is one of the most important investments you can make in your health.
In an Instagram video shared on March 10, the doctor explains how losing even a single hour of sleep can have measurable effects on the body, using the global phenomenon of daylight saving time to illustrate just how profoundly sleep influences our health, performance, and overall wellbeing.
What happens when you lose even 1 hour of sleep?
According to Dr Prakash, losing even a single hour of sleep can have far-reaching consequences for millions of people and their daily lives. He points out that more than 1.6 billion people across 70 countries experience this disruption twice a year when daylight saving time shifts the clocks forward by an hour as the warmer months begin, often throwing the body’s natural sleep-wake cycle out of sync.
He highlights, “Can one single hour of sleep affect millions of people? I practice longevity medicine, and there are lots of studies that answer this very question. It’s been done on 1.6 billion people across 70 countries, and it’s being done twice a year. It’s called daylight saving time.”
What is daylight saving time?
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is the practice of advancing clocks by one hour during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time. It shifts an hour of daylight from the early morning to the late afternoon or evening, allowing for better alignment with typical waking hours and potentially saving energy.
How does daylight saving time affect your body?
Dr Prakash highlights that losing just one hour of sleep due to daylight saving time can affect your body in ways you may not immediately notice. Every spring, when clocks move forward by an hour, rates of heart attack admissions rise, road accidents become more frequent, and people’s judgment and decision-making abilities can suffer. Interestingly, when the clocks are turned back in autumn and that lost hour is regained, many of these effects appear to reverse.
The longevity doctor explains, “For those not familiar, this is when the clocks shift by one hour forward in spring and backwards in autumn. And the data shows that on the day we lose just one hour of sleep, heart attacks increase by 24 percent the following day. And the day we gain one hour in autumn, heart attacks drop by around 21 percent. It doesn’t stop there. Road traffic accidents rise, workplace injuries increase. Even court verdicts get impacted. Federal judges give harsher sentencing the day after the sleep loss, and more lenient rulings after the extra hour of sleep.”
All of this goes to show just how dependent your body is on sleep. Sleep is not a luxury but a biological necessity, giving your body the time it needs to rest, recover and repair itself each day.
Dr Prakash concludes, “That’s how fragile our physiology actually is. And that’s how powerful one hour of sleep can be at a population level. We like to think we’re resilient. But one hour of sleep exposes just how fragile that resilience really is. Your heart, your reflexes, and your judgment are all hanging by sixty minutes. Sleep isn’t a wellness trend. It’s the foundation everything else is built on.”
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. It is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
