Permanent Daylight Saving Time Could Harm Sleep and Mental Health, Analysis Says

throw0101a

Open-access link to the study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal : > In this analysis, we focus not on whether seasonal clock adjustments should end, but on which policy should be adopted if time changes are eliminated. We explore the public health implications of pDST and pST — with attention to mental health and broader determinants of health — and propose measures to monitor and mitigate the impacts of policy change on population health. * https://www.cmaj.ca/content/198/34/E1335 / https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.261089 * PDF: https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/198/34/E1335.full.pdf

swader999

Anyone looking at this with an ounce of willingness to research it would have chosen permanent standard time but they never even offered that in any of the referendums across the provinces that switched. I'm getting the high end bright wake uplights for my kids this winter. Pretty annoying.

inanutshellus

Confoundingly, not having permanent daylight savings time could harm sleep and mental health, @inanutshellus says. If it benefits you to have DST timing, you'll want permanent DST. If it benefits you to ditch it, you'll want to ditch it. The effects of being on the "wrong side" affect mental health and safety. Thus... whichever way you want to be true, is true.

GJim

STOP. Discussions on daylight savings time are pointless without stating your lattitude. [Here in London at 51 Deg North, DST is much more relevent and appreciated when the summer sun rises so early, and the winter sun so late; it helps keep ones body somewhat in line with nature].

Jedd

The _other_ option is to shift, perhaps in two x half-hour stages over a month or longer, but around the equinoxes - the 'standard operating hours' for services and businesses. This is often overlooked as an alternative to shifting everyone's timepiece at the same instant -- I've never understood why there's so much much emotion and/or inertia around clock changes.

shaftoe

Can we just stop changing the clock?

brody_hamer

I don’t get it. Every time-change feels like such a huge relief to me. In the fall, it means brighter mornings, making getting up so much easier for the entire family. It’s worth giving up the evening light so we’re not waiting for the morning schoolbus in the dark. And likewise; I don’t want it to be sunny at 4am in June. So changing the clock suits me perfectly. For context: I’m at 45latitude (Toronto)

Ekaros

I never really understood why not just shift schedule. Set a certain date and move all schedules of public institutions. Inform this early enough to allow rest who want to follow. Then later fix as needed. I fully support permanently moving to correct time. Meaning not summer time. And then just fixing schedules as needed.

glimshe

I want permanent standard time. Few people seem to prefer that, although it is apparently popular in some states not well represented online.

christophilus

How about, pick a time and stick with it. Then, if it turns out people should be getting up with the sun, we change the stupid school and business hours to accommodate humans?

PowerElectronix

Permanent whatever time is better than changing times. Standard or daylight saving doesn't matter, society will adapt schedules to either.

einarfd

I couldn't see anything in the article about early vs late risers. My impression when looking at this kind of research, is that it, like everything else around this subject in society. Is from the perspective. That early risers are the only valid type, and us late risers are anomolies, that should not be catered to, and our challenges are a moral failing. For me living in Norway, one of the hardest things every fall, and that makes me depressed for weeks, is when one weekend, when the days are already getting shorter fast. One hour of evening day light gets janked overnight. It is imo. horrible.

lennoff

Can't we settle somewhere in the middle? Like occasionally sleeping an hour longer, but never shorter?

kator

I would rather the planet run on UTC time and no "savings" time stuff either. It would take a while to get used to, but it would make working with my teammates across the world easier, the constant time zone conversion, oh are they on DST, oh they don't honor it.. way more exhausting than hours of light or dark on one side of my work day or another.

ang_cire

This is all a product of decoupling hours of operation from seasonal cycles. People are worried about waking up in darkness to have to go to work (rightfully), and the actual solution is not to shift the clock around, it's to shift starting hours later in the day, and end working earlier, in the winter. We're arranging our entire lives around the convenience of corporations, and doing studies to figure out which way of doing so is least detrimental to us, rather than just not doing so in the first place.

JonChesterfield

At a minimum we could do it on the same day in the UK as in America. All the meetings moving by an hour four times a year is deeply unhelpful. I have no idea when the clocks change but I definitely missed a lot of meetings by an hour.

skerit

> The health evidence points to standard time, largely because morning light matters for our body clocks, sleep, and mood Depending on where you live, depending on how long your commute is and by what time you have to be at your job, ... a lot of people don't get that anyway in the winter. There is no one solution, and you're going to piss of a bunch of people anyway.