Lower SAT scores linked to daylight saving time?

Add this to your list of worries, high schoolers: Daylight saving time might mess with your college admissions. For decades, scientists have debated whether spring and fall time changes affect everything from seasonal affective disorder to traffic accidents. The idea is that resetting clocks by "springing forward" and "falling back" can upset sleep patterns and with them the ability to concentrate. Now, it appears that these time changes might just muck up performance on the SAT, the U.S. college admissions exam, which is administered five times a year, including two dates that fall after daylight saving transitions. Using data from Indiana, where until recently individual counties could opt in or out of daylight saving, researchers found that scores in counties that changed their clocks were consistently 16.34 points - or 2 percent - lower than in counties that did not, they report online this month in the Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics. That may not sound like a lot, but it may be enough to keep you out of your top choice for school. So choose your test dates carefully, kids. Springing forward has a nice ring to it, but it also may mean springing toward the back of your college list.

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