By james art The clocks are going “back” this weekend, and while many people dread the loss of that extra hour of daylight in the evening, a clinical psychologist says that going back to standard time is actually better for the human body.
The time change officially takes effect at 2 a.m. on Sunday.
Dr. Sheila Garland, director of the Sleep, Health and Wellness Lab at Memorial University, says there is a “big movement” in North America to get rid of the change and set the time permanently to standard time.
Garland says this is the time that is most aligned with the body’s circadian clock, or sleep/wake cycle.
(Dr. Sheila Garland)
She says that when the clocks go forward an hour in the spring, people experience more problems such as cardiovascular problems and more workplace accidents.
While there may be a few days of lethargy and fatigue when the clocks go back, Garland says there’s generally less of an impact than when the clocks go back in the spring.
“People are wrong when they talk about the one-time change. They always go to daylight saving time because they think we want more daylight,” she said. “But it actually complicates our 24-hour society and is out of sync with the way our bodies work.”
“Our bodies function much more efficiently when we have daylight in the morning, so that’s why this shift to standard time, you see the brighter daylight in the morning, which helps alertness and energy levels.”
In the meantime, authorities are reminding people to take advantage of the opportunity to replace batteries in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.
It is also recommended that homes and cabins with wood, oil, or propane-fired appliances have a carbon monoxide detector installed at each level of the structure.