DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME
Should we scrap daylight saving time?
THE BIG QUESTION
Most of us look forward to the extra hour we get in bed every October, but researchers argue that changing the clocks twice a year harms our health
by IAN TAYLOR
Human beings don’t like change. As a species, we’re a conservative bunch – very adaptable, of course, but ultimately fond of safe, predictable stasis. So it’s odd that twice a year, every year, we inflict a big, fundamental change upon ourselves when we turn our clocks back in autumn and forward in spring.
On paper, this biannual gear shift doesn’t seem that significant – it’s only an hour after all. But our bodies really don’t like change. The negative effects on our wellbeing are such that many health researchers believe the Sun needs to set on daylight saving time (DST) altogether.
Their reasoning? The clocks inside our bodies aren’t as easy to change as the ones on our walls. Mounting research shows that artificially altering the time twice a year has a significant impact on our circadian health, interrupting the rhythm of the internal body clocks that keep many of our bodily functions ticking. When the clocks spring forward in March, for example, there’s usually a 25-per-cent uptick in the number of heart attacks reported. It’s thought disruption to our circadian clocks raises our blood pressure and the amount of cortisol, a stress hormone, in our systems, increasing the overall risk of a heart attack.