Permanent Daylight Saving Time Would Push Toronto's Winter Sunrise to 8:51 a.m., Researchers Warn
Permanent Daylight Saving Time Could Harm Sleep and Mental Health, Analysis Says
Canadian health researchers are urging provinces to adopt permanent standard time rather than permanent daylight saving time if they end the twice-yearly clock change. In an analysis in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Raymond Lam of the University of British Columbia and colleagues argue that later winter sunrises — 8:51 a.m. in Toronto, 9:40 a.m. in Calgary — would disrupt circadian rhythms, sleep and mood, and work against an evidence-based treatment for seasonal affective disorder.
Our biological clocks need morning light to stay synchronized with the 24-hour day. Permanent daylight saving time moves that light an hour later just when winter mornings are already darkest.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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].
- PowerElectronix
Permanent whatever time is better than changing times. Standard or daylight saving doesn't matter, society will adapt schedules to either.
- 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
- 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.
- 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.