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posted by hubie on Wednesday October 30, @04:28PM   Printer-friendly
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."


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  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday October 30, @09:13PM (7 children)

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 30, @09:13PM (#1379494) Journal

    As a naturally lazy person, I hate it when the clocks go forward in the spring and I have to get up an hour earlier. It makes me grumpy all the way through to the end of October when I am happy to get an extra hour in bed one Sunday morning and I can get up at a reasonable time. I believe DST was invented during World War I to get more productivity out of farmers and factory workers. They also brought in the licensing laws to make pubs close at a "reasonable time" (it was 10pm in England until comparatively recently) so that the workers wouldn't stay up until all hours getting legless. The thing is, if you are a farmer, you have to get up and attend to your animals at whatever time of day they're awake (which is synchronised to the Sun) and when there's daylight for attending to crops. I don't suppose making 4 o'clock in the morning into 5 o'clock makes any difference. You would still have to get up if it were called 4 o'clock.

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  • (Score: 2) by corey on Wednesday October 30, @09:25PM (4 children)

    by corey (2202) on Wednesday October 30, @09:25PM (#1379498)

    I like it. I live on a rural property but my work is on the computer. So having extra daylight means I can go out after dinner and get stuff done when I’m not expected to work. Otherwise I spend all my daylight hours inside on the computer. Then when finished and it’s time to do what I want, it’s dark and cold outside.

    But i know it’s each to their own.

    Of course if you’re going to ask the British Sleep Society for their opinion, they’re going to bag out daylight savings time.

    • (Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday October 31, @12:45AM (3 children)

      by aafcac (17646) on Thursday October 31, @12:45AM (#1379511)

      As well they should, daylight saving time is absolutely horrible. Sure, once a year you get an extra hour of sleep, but another time you lose an hour of sleep. And, there really is no upside to it. The US already tried permanent DST, and it was horrible, so I really don't understand why states are trying to push DST as the standard rather than standard time that's closer to what the sun says time is.

      Perhaps in the past there may have been some upside, but people can be up all night long with their computers and various jobs, changing the clocks doesn't actually save any energy these days, it's just a massive pain.

      • (Score: 2) by owl on Thursday October 31, @02:16AM (2 children)

        by owl (15206) on Thursday October 31, @02:16AM (#1379516)

        The US already tried permanent DST, and it was horrible, so I really don't understand why states are trying to push DST as the standard rather than standard time that's closer to what the sun says time is.

        Because those politicians were not around when we tried permanent DST and don't intuitively "get" the downsides. They just see it as "why not have an extra hour of daylight every evening of every day of the year?".

        One winter on DST and they will wise up fast.

        • (Score: 2) by aafcac on Thursday October 31, @03:25AM (1 child)

          by aafcac (17646) on Thursday October 31, @03:25AM (#1379527)

          If last time is any indication, we'll put up with that hell for one year, before all the states adopt permanent standard time. Then again, we have a lot of niceties now that they didn't last time they tried, so it's not quite a sure thing. My money is on one hellish winter before the matter resolves to permanent standard time though.

          • (Score: 3, Insightful) by owl on Thursday October 31, @09:52PM

            by owl (15206) on Thursday October 31, @09:52PM (#1379689)

            My money is on one hellish winter before the matter resolves to permanent standard time though.

            That's my belief as well. The idiot politicians will go the "DST year round" route thinking the "extra hour in evening" is a good thing.

            Then, one winter season on DST will rapidly have the pitchforks and torches out for those same politicians such that the actual settlement (assuming they settle on dropping the "changing twice a year" in the first place) will end up being on "standard time" year round.

  • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Thursday October 31, @09:29PM (1 child)

    by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 31, @09:29PM (#1379683)

    For a while now it hasn't mattered, as all the equipment have lights on them so they can run at night if needed. Buildings with animals in them are all lighted as well. DST hasn't mattered to a farmer for a long time already.

    --
    The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
    • (Score: 2) by owl on Friday November 01, @01:06AM

      by owl (15206) on Friday November 01, @01:06AM (#1379721)

      DST hasn't mattered to a farmer for a long time already.

      DST never mattered to a farmer, ever. If the farmer raises animals, those animals have zero idea what "time" it is on the clock and instead need their appropriate tending when its needed, no matter what the big and little hand on the clock face say. I.e., the cows need to be milked when they need to be milked, and the cows can't tell time.

      If the farmer raises plants, those plants also can't tell time, and if the farmer wants to maximize his/her illumination during the day for harvest, they are getting up at dawn, no matter where on the clock dial dawn happens to fall due to government decree.

      The 'farmer' excuse for DST was always just that, an excuse told to non-farmers (city folk) if they grumbled about DST. Since 99.999% of the city folk would never set foot on a farm, they had no basis to question the narrative they were being fed.