Springing forward and falling back on health: The effects of daylight saving time on acute myocardial infarction

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a common energy policy worldwide. We examine the effects of DST on the incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) over three distinct time frames: short, medium, and long run. By exploiting the unique circumstances in Indiana, our findings highlight a substantial 27.2% increase in AMI admissions at the spring transition, which lasts for approximately two weeks, is not offset by counteractive reductions during the DST period, and occurs at each transition over the years studied, indicating little adaptation to time adjustments. Conversely, we find no similar effects at the autumn transitions. Together, these findings contribute to the ongoing policy debate by providing evidence of the short-term costs of time adjustments, without offering any discernible health benefits associated with the adoption of permanent DST.