Changing the clocks by putting them an hour back in October and one hour forward in the spring is harming the nation’s sleep health – now experts are calling for the outdated idea to be scrapped
Changing the clocks is an outdated idea that is harming our health and needs to be scrapped, according to sleep experts.
The Daylight Saving Time initiative, introduced in the UK back in 1916, has had its day, according to some. Now calls for the age-old process to be shelved are resurfacing as Britain prepares to put the clocks back by one hour this Sunday, October 27.
For more than 100 years, Brits have been changing their clocks twice a year to make the most of daylight during the summer and winter but experts are now saying it’s an outdated idea that is actually harming our health. Members of the British Sleep Society (BSS), a professional organisation for medical, scientific and health workers, said evidence clearly shows that natural daylight in the morning is good for sleep patterns, while changing the clocks has a negative impact.
Disrupting peoples’ sleep cycles not only makes it more difficult for people to adjust back to a normal schedule but it could also lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. A 2019 study by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital looked into the impact that sleep deficiency can have on heart disease in mice. It discovered after 16 weeks, mice who had their sleep cycles disrupted, developed larger arterial plaques compared to the mice with normal sleep patterns.
And that’s not the only concern. Every year when the clocks go forward in spring, there is a corresponding increase in the number of heart attacks and car accidents – according to body clock expert Dr Gisela Helfer, from the University of Bradford. In 2018, the RAC published a report based on five years worth of accident data from the Department for Transport looking at collision data in the two weeks either side of the clocks change. It concluded there were fewer collisions when clocks go forward (-1.5%) but this was far outweighed by a 5.1% increase when clocks go back in October.
This report followed another study in 2014 by experts at the University of Colorado which looked at heart attack admissions over three years. It found that the Monday after the clocks move forward in spring saw a 24 per cent spike in heart attacks, whereas on the Tuesday after the clocks fall back in autumn heart attacks went down by 21 per cent.
And changing the clocks also has an affect on people’s mental health. While we get an extra hour of daylight in the morning after the clocks change in October this only lasts a couple of weeks before the days become shorter and the sun rises later. For some people the increased hours of darkness can result in low mood, fatigue and muscle pain due to a lack of vitamin D from exposure to sunlight.
Research has found that daylight saving time can worsen disorders such as anxiety, depression and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). On the shortest days of the year, the 21 and 22 December, the UK enjoys less than eight hours of sunlight. It’s thought that a lack of sunlight might stop the hypothalamus from working properly, which can affect the production of melatonin which makes you feel sleepy as well as serotonin – a hormone that affects your mood, appetite and sleep.
In the UK, the clocks go forward one hour at 1am on the last Sunday in March, and back one hour at 2am on the last Sunday in October. The period when the clocks are one hour ahead is called British Summer Time (BST) or Daylight Saving Time. But when the clocks go back on the last Sunday in October, the UK is on Greenwhich Mean Time (GMT), also known as Standard Time.
But experts are insisting it’s important to have natural daylight in the morning as it helps our body clocks differentiate between day and night, something that is essential for optimal sleep and overall health. “That one-hour change may not seem like much, but it can wreak havoc on people’s mental and physical well-being in the short term,” says Dr. Charles Czeisler, professor of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine.
Some 70 countries observe daylight saving time, which involves changing the clocks twice a year but it’s not the first time experts have called for the process of changing the clocks to be scrapped in the UK. Countries like Turkey, Hong Kong and Iceland no longer observe daylight saving time, however, it is understood the Government has no plans to change the system in the UK.
How to prepare for the clocks changing
Meanwhile there are some ways you can prepare yourself for the change, according to Dr Czeisler:
- Gradually go to bed earlier and get up earlier for a few days leading up to the clock change
- Fit in an afternoon nap if you’re feeling tired the day after the clocks go back
- Expose yourself to natural light in the morning or invest in a light box
- Cut down caffeine and alcohol as this can also affect sleep
