{"id":522392,"date":"2026-03-08T11:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522392\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T11:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T11:08:15","slug":"why-b-c-permanent-dst-switch-might-be-bad-for-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522392\/","title":{"rendered":"Why B.C. permanent DST switch might be bad for health"},"content":{"rendered":"

As B.C. prepares for what could be its last ever time change this weekend<\/a>, one expert is raising concerns about the health implications of adopting a permanent daylight saving time (DST).<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s fine to switch to standard time and do away with the annual switches. But switching to daylight savings time, it\u2019s not the right choice, and that\u2019s the consensus of pretty much all of the experts,\u201d said Ralph Mistlberger, a psychology professor at Simon Fraser University who researches the functions of circadian rhythms and sleep.<\/p>\n

Morning light is important for setting people\u2019s circadian rhythm, or biological clock, which gets on the day-night cycle from our eyes.<\/p>\n

Most humans\u2019 clocks run at about 24.2 hours (that\u2019s how long it takes for our clocks to complete a cycle). But it stays synchronized to the solar day (24 hours) when we expose ourselves to morning light.<\/p>\n

Evening light, however, has the opposite effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take away morning light and add it on to the evening, then the net result is that the clock, your biological clock, will naturally synchronize with the light-dark cycle, but it\u2019s synchronized at a slightly later phase, so it makes it harder to get up early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mistlberger is concerned about the effects of this in the winter months when days are short and we will be missing an additional hour of light in the morning.<\/p>\n

Most people will be battling \u201csocial jet lag,\u201d or a misalignment between the circadian clock and social clock (which is what we use our watches to keep track of and is when we start work, school, and so forth).<\/p>\n

When people are misaligned, it is harder to go to both wake up early in the morning and go to bed at night, which will result in less sleep.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s particularly concerned about teenagers, who already have a delayed circadian clock and naturally tend to stay up later. He said sleep experts have already been encouraging school boards<\/a> to start school later, to align with teens\u2019 natural clocks.<\/p>\n

The permanent change to DST could cause teens to lose out on even more sleep and influence how well they do in high school. Someone who is chronically sleep deprived is less likely to make good decisions and resist impulses.<\/p>\n

Mistlberger also noted that there are a number of chronic health problems, like cardiovascular disease and obesity, that are higher in DST than in standard time.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the best option?
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Shawn.ccf\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The twice-annual time changes weren\u2019t ideal, either.<\/p>\n

When Premier David Eby made the announcement on Monday, March 2, he said the move would improve health, reduce disruptions for families, and allow for an extra hour of light during winter evenings.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery parent knows that changing clocks twice a year causes a significant amount of chaos on already busy lives,\u201d he said. \u201cBritish Columbians have been clear that seasonal time changes do not work for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis decision isn\u2019t just about clocks. It\u2019s about making life easier for families, reducing disruptions for businesses and supporting a stable, thriving economy. I am hopeful that our American neighbours will soon join us in ending disruptive time changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many B.C. residents responded to a 2019 survey, stating they wanted to switch to daylight saving time year-round.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2019, more than 93 per cent of a record 223,000 British Columbians told us they wanted to remain on year-round daylight-saving time (DST),\u201d the B.C. Ministry of the Attorney General told Daily Hive in 2023. \u2018It is as clear a message as we could hope to receive. British Columbians told us that it\u2019s important to maintain alignment with our neighbours in Washington, Oregon, and California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mistlberger thinks the government decided this because most people want more light in the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s true. We do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he added that most people might not be aware of circadian biology or understand the effects of losing morning light.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important that the politicians listen very carefully to what the actual experts are saying. And not everybody who speaks up is an expert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than permanently going to DST, Mistlberger and organizations like the Canadian Sleep Society advise switching over to Standard Time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Standard Time was created so that time zones aligned with the day-night cycle, so that the sun is directly overhead at noon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that, biologically, seems to work the best for the most people,\u201d said Mistlberger.<\/p>\n

How to prepare?<\/p>\n

Clocks move ahead one hour early Sunday, March 8, meaning that we are losing an hour of sleep this weekend.<\/p>\n

To prepare, Mistlberger recommends going to bed earlier than normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good weekend to not stay up late,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Sunday and Monday, he advises people to go out early and get sunlight early in the morning, which will help shift their circadian clock.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the winter months and we have an hour less of daylight in the morning, Mistlberger recommends getting a light therapy lamp (often sold at pharmacies), which has a much higher level of light output than normal lights, and turning it on in the morning.<\/p>\n

Inthe evenings, he said it\u2019s a good idea to minimize light exposure, since artificial light can delay your circadian clock.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour clock thinks that the sun is still up. It\u2019s responding to all of the ambient light.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, in turn, suppresses melatonin secretion from the pineal gland, which starts to occur in the evening prior to when we go to sleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just basic biology,\u201d Mistlberger said. \u201cDaylight Saving Time is\u00a0 working against our best interest as far as regulating our daily rhythms, which are so important for determining how easy it is to sleep, and how likely it is that we\u2019re going to get the amount of sleep which is optimal.\u201d<\/p>\n

With files from Daniel Chai<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As B.C. prepares for what could be its last ever time change this weekend, one expert is raising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-522392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}