TIME TO CHANGE YOUR BODY CLOCK?

Early bird or night owl? Whatever your typical circadian rhythm, 'springing forward' into British Summer Time can impact all of us

- Sally Saunders

Spring forward, fall back. The clock change has always fascinated and confused me in equal measure. At this time of year, it's an invitation to head outdoors and, then, as the year recedes, to hunker down inside. But what is the clock change really about, and how does it actually impact us? (Other than leaving you feeling red-faced and flustered, when you turn up at your child's Sunday sports fixture an hour late!)

The clocks changing is seen by many as a hangover from outdated wartime and industrial practices, which just don't apply these days. And it seems that some of its staunchest opponents are the sleep experts.

'Naturally, we have our biological clock, which sits up in the brain, and that clock tells the body when to do what: when to be awake, when to be asleep, when to eat, explains Dr Kat Lederle, a sleep therapist.

'If we didn't have our social clocks our wristwatches and phones - we would live according to the sun: getting up when the sun comes up, going to sleep when the sun goes down, which changes across the year, and across the seasons.

'But today's human beings, with our modern electric lighting, can override all of this natural instinct, at least to some degree,' says Dr Lederle, and we have introduced this somewhat-flawed clock change twice a year.

'The clock change in the spring is certainly worse for our health and wellbeing, and losing that hour of sleep can have significant impact,' she adds.

Sleep expert Olivia Arezollo explains: 'If you look at rates of heart attacks on the morning of the day when we lose an hour, they increase by about 20 percent. Then, in the autumn, when we gain an hour's sleep, that following day we experience a decline in heart attacks by about that same 20 percent. That's a collective variance that happens year after year,' says Arezollo. 'It's not just by chance.

So why is the impact so significant? Surely an hour's sleep can't impact us that dramatically?