sleep

A psychology professor says area residents will have to suffer through longer dark periods in the winter if Daylight Saving Time is observed year-round.

The Ontario government is allowing communities in the Central Time Zone to remain on the same time as Manitoba, which eliminates the need for a clock change on November 1st.

University of Calgary’s Michael Antle says it means going to school or work in the dark.

He says that experience will weigh heavily on many people.

“People think that light in the evening is going to help, but from the circadian point of view, we have this clock in our brain, and it follows daylight,” says Antle.

“For most people, it’s the morning light that’s really critical to helping to set your circadian clock. Our clocks run a little slow, and they need a little adjustment to pull them back forward. It’s the morning light that does that.”

Antle says the biggest impact will be on people’s sleep patterns.

Some studies show that the later the sunset, the less sleep people get as they tend to go to bed later when it is bright out.

“Later sunsets, while they seem fun, especially in the summer, they do equate to less sleep,” says Antle.

“And that’s one of the three pillars of good health: a good diet, good exercise and good sleep. Anything that erodes your sleep is going to erode your health.”

Efforts to eliminate the need to change the clocks have been tried before.

Russia was the latest to make the move in 2021, while the United Kingdom tried it in the late 1960s.

The United States remained on Daylight Saving Time in 1974 during the energy crisis to allow for more daylight hours during early evening.

Antle says in all cases, it led to an increase in seasonal affective disorders, like winter depression, and concerns about the dark winter mornings.

“Everybody who tried it said, ‘Didn’t know those mornings would be so dark in the winter, this isn’t what we wanted,” says Antle.

“They think that the little extra hour of daylight at the end of the day will make all the difference, but getting up and going to school, going to work in the dark is really hard. It goes against what our bodies want to do. Living in Canada is hard enough with our short winter days, but getting up long before sunrise is very challenging.”

He says that eliminating the need to change clocks every spring and fall is probably a good idea; he favours remaining on standard time.

“From a health point of view, it matches more what your body wants to do, and so you’ll feel better,” says Antle.

“You get to use that extra time in the morning to sleep in a little bit later. You don’t have to wake up with an alarm clock quite as often. So if you match what your body wants to do to what your work and school schedules are, it tends to make everybody happier and healthier.”