Ontarians pushed their clocks forward one hour on a Sunday night, only to wake up in darkness the next morning.
The semi-annual time change has become a worldwide habit, but the aftermath of this switch needs to be addressed. It’s time that Canada takes a look at whether these changes are still necessary.
The Sunshine Protection Act in the U.S., if it passes, will establish permanent daylight savings time in the country and most of Canada beginning in November 2023.
However, research shows that permanent standard time aligns best with people’s internal clock. This is the time between November and March.
University of Toronto professor and neuroscientist, Richard Horner, said these changes affect human behaviour.
“Moving the clocks forward and moving them back has impacts on people’s function,” Horner said. “It’s been shown to have impacts on sleep and performance, and accident-related injuries and productivity,”
Horner said these changes in time could potentially affect students the most.
“What happens when the clocks go back is that it’s like moving a time zone and it takes a while to adjust,” he said.
“In that period of time, if you look at the populations, you know, accidents do go up. Particularly for those people that are night owls, which a lot of the student body is,” Horner said.
The Sleep Research Society (SRS) indicates that daylight savings time causes chronic circadian misalignment. This is when the timing of natural light is not in sync with the body anymore.
“Most people are not aware of the value of exposure to morning light,” he said. “We are affected strongly by light in particular, which is the strongest stimulus.”
Moving to permanent standard time allows people to wake up in natural sunlight and fall asleep when it’s dark.
According to the American Heart Association, U.S. researchers conducted a study that showed the risk of a heart attack increased by 24 per cent the Monday after switching over to daylight savings time.
In the same study during the fall, the risk of a heart attack dropped by 21 per cent the Tuesday after the time change.
Horner stresses the importance of people taking care of themselves to regulate their sleep schedules after losing an hour of sleep.
“One of the best tips for adjusting is to get out and get some light exposure in the morning to boost alertness,” he said. “This helps reorganize our body clocks to get on the time.”
Eliminating the time change can bring positive outcomes to people’s mental health. It’s time that Canada makes a decision.
First published on Humber News