Permanent daylight time will cause sleep problems, B.C. expert says

Dr. Wendy Hall discusses B.C.'s decision to eliminate daylight saving time and the possible health effects that come with the change.

While an end to the hassle of changing the clocks back and forth twice a year is welcome news to many, a sleep expert has health concerns about B.C.’s decision to remain on daylight time year-round.

Dr. Wendy Hall, professor emeritus in nursing at UBC, is one of several experts that agrees with giving up the time change, but would prefer to remain on standard time.

Daylight time will mean more evening sunlight in the winter, but it will also bring dark mornings, something Hall says will mess with our circadian rhythms.

“The problem with daylight savings time is that it induces what we call phase delay,” she told CTV News Channel on Tuesday, explaining that morning darkness and evening light will cause people to naturally fall asleep and wake up later.

“Because we live in a society where we can’t delay our wake times, because we all go to school and go to work and we have expectations about when we will be there in the morning, it means that if you’re pushing back your sleep onset times, you end up with less sleep,” Hall said.

“And we know that not enough sleep is a major risk for all kinds of health problems.”

She said the switch will cause “social jetlag,” which she says is unhealthy, especially for adolescents, whose circadian rhythms are often already mismatched with normal schedules.

Hall predicts there will be many conversations to be had about the new time zone come winter, when kids will be travelling to school in darkness and the sun won’t be rising until close to 10 a.m. in the northern parts of the province.