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from the sun-is-the-same-in-a-relative-way dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A group of researchers in the UK affiliated with the BSS (British Sleep Society) published a paper this week calling for the permanent abolition of Daylight Saving Time (DST) and adherence to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in large part because modern evidence suggests having that extra hour of sunlight in the evenings is worse for our health than we thought back in the 1970s when the concept was all the rage in Europe.
Not only does GMT more closely align with the natural day/light cycle in the UK, the boffins assert, but decades of research into sleep and circadian rhythms have been produced since DST was enacted that have yet to be considered.
The human circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle our bodies go through, drives a lot about our health beyond sleep. It regulates hormone release, gene expression, metabolism, mood (who isn't grumpier when waking up in January?), and the like. In short, it's important. Messing with that rhythm by forcing ourselves out of bed earlier for several months out of the year can have lasting effects, the researchers said.
According to their review of recent research, having light trigger our circadian rhythms in the mornings to wake us up is far more important than an extra hour of light in the evenings. In fact, contrary to the belief that an extra hour of light in the evenings is beneficial, it might actually cause health problems by, again, mucking about with the human body's understanding of what time it is and how we ought to feel about it.
"Disruption of the daily synchronization of our body clocks causes disturbances in our physiology and behavior … which leads to negative short and long-term physical and mental health outcomes," the authors said.
That, and we've just plain fooled ourselves into thinking it benefits us in any real way.
[...] And for the love of sleep, the researchers beg, don't spring forward permanently.
"Mornings are the time when our body clocks have the greatest need for light to stay in sync," said Dr Megan Crawford, lead author and senior lecturer in psychology at University of Strathclyde. "At our latitudes there is simply no spare daylight to save during the winter months and given the choice between natural light in the morning and natural light in the afternoon, the scientific evidence favors light in the morning."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday October 30 2024, @07:08PM (2 children)
This one comes up every year, like clockwork. It's not hard. It's even less problematic these days as you don't have to go around your flat/house and move all the clocks forwards or backwards depending on which time of the year it is. Computers, phones etc all adjust themselves unless you have for some reason changed the default setting.
For some parts of the world it might not matter and it all seems like a big pain. But if you live up north in the world getting that one extra hour of sunlight or daylight kind helps. Sure they could just wake up on their own an hour earlier but then it would be weird cause society in general wouldn't start earlier if you didn't change the clocks. Or it would be equality weird then to remember that all the stores and services have changed their opening hours by one hour.
If you live along the equator or some place middle of the earth then sure this is probably a big pain for you. Or weird. Or you don't see the point of it. But to the rest of us it matters.
(Score: 3, Touché) by chucky on Wednesday October 30 2024, @08:40PM (1 child)
If you live north enough, the night starts on September 23rd and ends on March 21st. One hour more or less doesn’t matter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 30 2024, @09:23PM
Indeed. Spend some time inside the arctic circle. Half the year it's almost eternal night, the sun barely manage to get above the horizon. Or it's light at all hours and you wish for darkness.