Is daylight saving time affecting your health?

FRANCE 24 English

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00:00 Well, here in France and in much of Europe, many of us will be getting an hour less sleep

00:04 tonight.

00:05 Clocks spring forward one hour on Sunday, marking the start of daylight savings time.

00:10 If you live in the US or Canada, you already moved your clocks forward earlier this month.

00:14 And if you live in South America, Africa, or Asia, you probably don't have to change

00:18 your clocks at all.

00:19 The general idea behind daylight savings time is to give us more evening light during the

00:23 summer and more morning light during the winter.

00:26 But there is a movement to abolish the switch, with some saying that it's bad for health.

00:31 Well, to discuss the pros and cons, we can cross to Rouen, France, and speak to Dr. Jan

00:36 Cedric Hansen.

00:37 He's the vice president of the Global Health Security Alliance.

00:40 Thank you so much for coming on the program.

00:43 Let's start with the negative argument, perhaps.

00:45 In what ways is this time change bad for our health?

00:50 There is little sound and relevant studies that back up any claim of being good or bad

00:59 for human health.

01:01 But what is quite clear is that there is a social impact of the DST, the daylight saving

01:08 time, because it actually diminished in the summer, as you just said.

01:13 It diminished the time of daylight before noon, and it increases the daylight after

01:20 noon.

01:21 And from that, there is a social jet lag of our habits.

01:27 And therefore, we are going to sleep much later.

01:30 And therefore, it does-- and this is well documented as the opposite-- that we have

01:37 a very bad quality of sleep.

01:41 And the quality of sleep does impact our working day life or security during the daylight and

01:48 working life.

01:49 For example, there is a well-known link, direct link, between the quality of life and the

01:55 number of traffic incidents or accidents, as well as in work or in the social habits.

02:05 So having a good sleep hygiene is something very critical for the human species, and most

02:13 of it in Europe and in Africa and in North America, indeed.

02:19 And are there any positive impacts that we get in exchange for perhaps the sleep that

02:23 we're losing?

02:24 Maybe there are mental health benefits to spending more time outside, or people are

02:28 exercising more?

02:30 Well, there is no specific studies weighting the pros and cons regarding the loss of sleep,

02:38 because we know that loss of sleep will increase anxiety and depression, for example.

02:42 It will increase your blood pressure, increase your vulnerability towards diabetes or any

02:49 cardiovascular threats.

02:52 And there is very little studies on how it increases, how your social life experience

02:59 is increased positively regarding having more time in the evening.

03:04 But what is interesting in your question is that the original goal of the daylight saving

03:12 time was to diminish the consumption of energy regarding the use of lightening of households

03:20 or industry or offices.

03:23 And nowadays, there's so many ways to spare energy that we can ask ourselves, is it still

03:29 relevant to have such a measure for that?

03:32 But again, there is no real sound studies that may tell us whether this measure is relevant

03:40 from the economic or the health aspects of the intention, original intention.

03:46 Yeah, as you say, not a lot of evidence to go by.

03:49 But if you had to decide, do you think we should abolish changing hours?

03:54 And if we're going to stick with one time, should it be the standard time that we use

03:58 in the winter or should it be the daylight savings time that we use in the summer?

04:02 Well, I think that's a social decision.

04:06 So it belongs more to politics than to health care experts to that.

04:10 We can deliver some elements, some arguments with pros and cons topics regarding that question.

04:18 But it's difficult for us.

04:20 One thing that is clear, and Canadians have particularly and recently highlighted that

04:25 it should be if we were to choose and to keep the saving, the daylight saving time, we should

04:32 more synchronize it on Equinox rather than doing it the way we do today and to do it

04:39 more on Friday, because it will give us two additional days, not Saturday and Sundays,

04:46 to adapt to the new schedule.

04:49 So for our own health, that would be positive impacts.

04:53 All right, Jan-Cedric Hansen, thank you so much for joining us.

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