Although the day the clocks “fall back” gives you an extra hour of sleep before your alarm goes off, the end of daylight saving time in November has multiple health implications. Many people have a difficult time adjusting since their internal clock has been altered. “Just that one hour can change the amount of sleep you get, the quality of sleep that you get,” said Phyllis Zee, MD, PhD, a sleep researcher at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, per The Associated Press. Many people, especially those with preexisting conditions, can experience darker moods following the clock change and through the fall and winter months. There are a few different theories for why this happens. One is the body’s circadian rhythm, its internal clock, is disrupted when the days are shorter with less access to the sun, which can cause a mood swing. Turning the clocks back an hour marks a time when the dark winter is coming. The lack of serotonin the body receives during this time of year can also contribute to a worsening mood. One thing you can do is keep your same bedtime. Don’t use the hour of extra sleep as an excuse to stay up late the prior day. No matter the time of year, but especially in the colder months, it’s wise to establish a good sleep routine.

Guz Walz, son of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, drew attention to neurodivergence after showing support for his father at the DNC. His parents recently shared that Gus has a nonverbal learning disorder, which is one form of neurodivergence. “When some people hear the term, I think they often think about how individuals may be impacted by neurodivergence to a greater degree. There’s a lot of people who almost have invisible disabilities, that have neurodivergence that you may not know when you meet them, day to day, but have other kinds of struggles they are working on with therapists or support they might need in school,” said Rachel Follmer, MD, attending physician in Developmental Pediatrics at Lurie Children’s Hospital and assistant professor of pediatrics (developmental behavioral pediatrics) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Autism and ADHD are among some of the bigger reasons why someone is considered neurodivergent. A nonverbal learning disorder, or NVLD, is another one, and don’t let the name fool you. “The tricky part about that is when people hear nonverbal, they often think someone isn’t talking and the opposite is actually true with that,” Follmer said. “This is something that early on is often difficult to see in younger children. It tends to become more apparent as kids get older because these patterns become more important and more nuanced in your ability to take that early learning skills and apply them as you get into the middle school age range,” Follmer said. If you think your child may be neurodivergent, the panel says the first step is to talk with your pediatrician to get qualified referrals to mental health professionals.

John Wilkins, MD, clinical director at the institute’s Human Longevity Laboratory, puts it like this: “When you ask how old someone is, you may be asking how long they’ve been alive, but you’re also implicitly asking how much time they probably have left.” Chronological age can’t tell you that, but biological age can. Douglas Vaughan, MD has been the director of the Potocsnak Longevity Institute since it was founded in 2022. “For just about every disease you can think of, age is the most important risk factor,” he says. “The point I’m making is that sometimes people focus so much on the body, but they forget that our brain is attached to everything in our body. Things like stress, loneliness, isolation, and adversity all have an effect.” Exactly how these factors affect us, and in what ways we can alter their impact, is what Wilkins and his colleagues at the Human Longevity Lab hope to discover.

Infections with the bacteria that causes walking pneumonia have risen significantly this year, particularly among young children, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned this month. The bacteria, called Mycoplasma pneumoniae, spreads through coughs and sneezes and can cause respiratory illnesses. Cases have risen among adults and children, but the most notable increase has been among children between 2 and 4, which experts say is striking given that the bacteria typically infects older children. Data suggests that doctors have diagnosed a growing number of children in this age group with infections after they sought treatment in emergency rooms for pneumonia. The rise among younger children may be in part because many stayed home during pandemic lockdowns, instead of going to day care or school. Tests to detect infections with the bacteria have also become better and more widely used in recent years, said Benjamin Singer, MD, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute. It’s possible that part of the increase is because of increased testing.