Daylight saving time ends this weekend in Europe: How does it affect health?

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Clocks in several European countries will go back one hour on Sunday, marking the end of daylight saving time. This seasonal change of time occurs twice a year: in spring it goes forward one hour summer time (DST) and in the fall we return to normal hours.

Although time change has been a standard practice for years and is common in most of Europe and the United States, and in parts of Canada, Australia and Latin America, health experts warn that can be detrimental to people’s well-being.

Earlier this week, a team of sleep researchers from the British Sleep Society published a statement urging the British Government to abolish twice-yearly clock changes.

The statement, published in the Journal of Sleep Research, advocates adopting standard time year-round as it more closely aligns with “the natural light and dark cycles of day and night.”

“Restoring permanent standard time would mean that our clocks would be closely aligned with solar time“, and although it would mean earlier sunsets in summer, there would be additional health benefits from improved sleep and circadian alignment due to increased exposure to morning sunlight from fall through spring,” Malcolm said in a statement. von Schantz, professor of chronobiology at Northumbria University and member of the Northumbria Center for Sleep Research.

The researchers added that maintaining a good sleep routine and exposure to natural daylight in the morning are important components of human health, and alteration of any of these factors could have negative health effects.

“If you don’t expose yourself to light in the morning, you don’t regulate your body clock as well as you could, and there is a specific time in the morning in which you need expose yourself to light to regulate your body clockallowing you to fall asleep early enough at night,” Dr Megan Crawford, senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Strathclyde and lead author of the paper, told Euronews Health.

“If you don’t do this, you burn the candle at both ends and you lose your night’s sleep, resulting in poor quality sleep, and poor quality sleep is linked to many health problems, both mental and physics,” he added.

What consequences does daylight saving time have for health?

One of the main reasons given by experts in favor of suspending the seasonal time change is its impact on the human circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is the body’s biological clock, which operates on a 24-hour cycle and, according to researchers, is involved in regulating essential bodily functions, such as sleep, hormone release, metabolism and mood.

The alterations derived from gaining or losing an hour of sleep interfere with the natural sleep cycle and affect these functions. Crawford explained that while the time change “doesn’t really make a difference” in the summer, when sunrises are still very early, the same is not true in other seasons.

“In spring and fall, sunrise is a little later, so by getting up an hour earlier we may be getting up in the dark. And that It’s really problematic because we need sunlight in the morning to regulate our body clocks and for optimal sleep,” he explains.

Exposure to light at the right time keeps the circadian cycle aligned with the 24-hour day, since morning light promotes natural awakening and allows falling asleep in the early afternoon, according to the statement.

However, exposure to light at night, which could occur during time changes, makes it difficult to fall asleep and wake up on time. Multiple scientific studies have also found evidence of an increase in adverse health consequences following the time change.

For example, a meta-analysis based on seven studies with more than 100,000 participants found that there was a significantly increased risk of heart attacks in the weeks following the spring and fall time changes.

Another study by Finnish researchers found that stroke hospitalizations increased in the first two days after the time change.

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Research has also linked it to an increase in mental health problems and mood disordersespecially in vulnerable people, including an increase in suicide rates in the weeks following the start of daylight saving time.

Crawford attributed resistance to ending time changes to a “lack of understanding,” stressing that the benefits of extending evening daylight in the summer would remain whether or not daylight saving time is used.

“Many people believe that daylight saving time gives them more sunlight or more daylight, but that won’t change. The sun won’t change just because we change our schedules“.

Europe’s stance on daylight saving time

In 2018, the European Commission proposed ending twice-yearly clock changes in the European Union. As part of the proposal, it also carried out an online consultation to determine the views of EU residents on the issue. Support for ending clock changes was significantwith rates ranging from 95% in Poland and Finland to 44% in Greece.

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The responses showed that an overwhelming majority of respondents were in favor of ending to this practicewith an average of 84% of people across the EU supporting the change.

However, although the European Parliament voted to adopt the change, the European Council has not accepted itand transitions to daylight saving time have continued.