Clocks sprung an hour forward on March 9, and according to new findings from Facebook’s data science team, users were more tired, but also felt wonderful.
According to Facebook, compared to the previous week, use of “tired” increased 25 percent, use of “sleepy” 28 percent, and people were 20 percent more “exhausted.”
However, as the Monday following the Daylight Savings Time change progressed, users were about as tired as on an average Monday.
Use of “feeling tired” was up 86 percent, and while people were clearly more dazed, use of more positive phrases was also up.
From the Facebook Data Science blog:
“One might wonder what other effects on mood the shift to DST has. Indeed, despite the tiredness, we see positive effects on the nation’s mood overall. On the Monday following DST, we see +21% increased usage of “wonderful”, and +19% increased usage of “great” compared to the previous Monday.”
Use of “annoyed” was down 14 percent, and “bored” was down 12 percent.
As the week went on, the extra light into the evening definitely helped to increase positive feelings:
“By Tuesday, “tired” is down to +6.5%, and by Thursday the effect is entirely muted, as “tired” is only up 0.1% over the previous week; “sleepy” and “exhausted” follow similar patterns. The happy feelings associated with having extra light at the end of the day, however, appear to persist: on Thursday, “happy” is up 3.5%, “wonderful” is up 4.8%, and “great” is up 4.2%.”
Facebook says other factors such as weather and news stories could have also contributed to the increase in more positive feelings, but the DST change appeared to be a major factor.
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