‘Circadian Assaults’: Daylight Saving Time May Hasten Strokes, MIs in Those At Risk

By AJN clinical editor Betsy Todd, MPH, RN, CIC

“Nurses and other shift workers may be particularly vulnerable to the problems that can result from sleep deprivation.”

Philippe Boulet/flickr creative commons Philippe Boulet/flickr creative commons

I don’t like daylight saving time (DST). Twice a year, when we begin and end this transition, I’m tired and cranky for a week. These sudden leaps forward and backward in time disrupt our bodies’ natural relationship to what should be gradual changes of season.

Not surprisingly, some studies suggest that these assaults on our circadian rhythms may affect our cardiovascular health. Swedish studies (here and here) based on national myocardial infarction (MI) data found small but significant increases in MI rates in the first few days to a week after the change to DST.

A Michigan study of more than 42,000 MI patients treated with angioplasty found a significant increase in MIs on the Monday after the start of DST. Their data, however, indicated that the overall incidence rate of MIs in need of angioplasty did not change, and the researchers suggested that DST may simply “accelerate” the incidence of cardiovascular events in at-risk patients, pulling them forward in time.

Researchers in Finland recently reported an increase in strokes at the start of DST, and like the Michigan researchers, concluded from their […]

2016-11-21T13:01:24-05:00March 11th, 2016|Nursing, nursing perspective|1 Comment
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AJN in April: Deep Breathing for Dialysis Patients, Isolation Care, Sleep Loss in Nurses, More

AJN0415.Cover.OnlineOn our cover this month is Pablo Picasso’s Le Rêve (The Dream). We chose this portrait of a woman in a restful pose to highlight the importance of proper sleep to a person’s overall health and well-being. Unfortunately, not many Americans are able to get the proper amount of rest. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimates that 50 to 70 million U.S. adults have chronic sleep and wakefulness disorders—and nurses are not immune.

Between long shifts and the stressful nature of their jobs, nurses are especially vulnerable to not getting an adequate amount of quality sleep. Fatigue from lack of sleep may diminish the quality of nursing care. Sleep loss has been linked to impaired learning, memory, and judgment and is also associated with a slew of chronic diseases. This month’s CE feature, “The Potential Effects of Sleep Loss on a Nurse’s Health,” describes the acute and chronic effects of sleep loss on nurses, strategies nurses can use to improve the quality of their sleep, and institutional policies that can promote good rest and recuperation.

This feature offers 2 CE credits to those who take the test that follows the article. You can further explore this topic by listening to a podcast interview with the author (this and other free podcasts are accessible via the Behind the Article podcasts page on our Web site, in our iPad […]

2016-11-21T13:02:46-05:00March 27th, 2015|career, nursing perspective, nursing research|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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