Ikaria: The Greek island where clocks don't matter and people live long

As Canadians prepare to set their clocks forward and potentially lose an hour of sleep this weekend, an island in the Mediterranean is offering a different perspective on time.

On the Greek island of Ikaria, located in the Aegean Sea and home to around 8,400 people, residents don't pay attention to what time it is. When Ikarians agree to meet up for coffee or lunch, it's completely normal to be up to two hours late.

"It is true that the time's dependence is weak on Ikaria. I was fully surprised when I visited them for the first time in February 2008. Time has a fully different sense and watches are not needed," Michel Poulain, a Belgian demography researcher, told CTVNews.ca in an email on Thursday.

Shops and restaurants often open late in the afternoon or in the evening.

"If you go for lunch, be ready to wait until 2 p.m. to be served," he said. "(In the) evening, no problem if you appear in the restaurant at 10 p.m."

Poulain and other researchers believe that this stress-free attitude towards time is part of the reason why Ikarians live up to a decade longer than most North Americans. In 2004, he and his colleague, Gianni Pes, introduced the concept of "Blue Zones" – areas in the world with the longest life expectancies.

Blue Zone researchers say one in three Ikarians make it to their 90s and "live almost entirely free of dementia and other chronic diseases." In addition to Ikaria, other Blue Zones around the world include Japan's Okinawa Prefecture, the Italian island of Sardinia, Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula and the city of Lora Linda in southern California.

Taking midday naps is also common among Ikarians. Poulain was involved in a 2021 study that found that nearly 70 per cent of Ikarian men and 60 per cent of Ikarian women over the age of 90 took a daytime nap.

Another 2011 study from the University of Athens also found that Ikarians who regularly took a midday nap had lower rates of depression and cited evidence that suggests that a midday nap "may reduce a person's risk of death from heart disease, possibly by lowering stress levels."

Other factors leading to the longevity of Ikarians include high levels of physical exercise, strong family ties and the Mediterranean diet, researchers say.

According to Ikaria's tourism board, Ikaria's slower pace of time dates back "many years ago," before proper roads were developed and travel by foot was the primary method of transportation. Ikarians often had to walk several hours to reach their destinations, making it difficult to arrange meetings at specific times.

The tradition of businesses opening late in the afternoon or in the evening also dates back hundreds of years, when pirates roamed the Aegean Sea. Ikaria's tourism board says that Ikarians would open their stores and do business at night in order to make their island appear uninhabited to pirates.

Ikarians have fiercely defended their island's laid-back attitude towards time. Poulain said there was a pharmacy that had initially opened from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Raches, a village on the western part of that island. But pressure from locals forced the pharmacy to change its opening hours from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

"People on Ikaria take time for everything and they even take time to die," Poulain said. "That's why they live longer!"