Lorrie Kirshenbaum was initially relieved when he heard Manitoba was going to stop changing its clocks this year.
“It’s good that we did away with the biannual time change,” the University of Manitoba professor of physiology and pathophysiology said.
“I think it was annoying to a lot of people.”
But Kirshenbaum’s reaction changed when he learned Manitoba was opting to stay on permanent daylight savings time instead of standard time.
In daylight savings time, mornings are darker and evenings are brighter. In standard time, there is more light in the morning and evenings are darker.
Kirshenbaum, who researches cardiovascular health, says heart attacks and strokes increase when jurisdictions “spring forward” from standard time to daylight savings time in the spring.
“Based upon what we know, there’s likely going to be some health issue associated with the time change to daylight saving,” he said.
‘More natural choice’
Manitoba is one of several Canadian jurisdictions where residents will not be changing their clocks on Nov. 1.
British Columbia, Alberta and the Northwest Territories are opting to stay on the summer time schedule, while parts of northwestern Ontario will stay on daylight savings time to align with Manitoba.
The newly elected Parti Quebecois has also promised to abolish the time change, making this year possibly the last time Quebecers will turn their clocks back.
The Yukon stopped its time change in 2020. That same year, Ontario passed a law to move to permanent daylight savings time, but it is not yet in force.
Most of Saskatchewan has not observed time changes since 1966 and is on central standard time. However, because of its location, Saskatchewan’s sunrises and sunsets align more closely with daylight savings time.
Experts warn that daylight savings time is out-of-sync with the body’s natural circadian rhythms, and that standard time would be better.
In March, the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium, a national hub of more than 200 sleep experts, called on Ottawa to hold a pan-Canadian conference on time changes and recommended the adoption of permanent standard time.
“[Standard time] is the more natural choice,” said Michael Antle, a psychology professor at the University of Calgary who studies the impact of the circadian rhythm on human emotions.
“[Standard time] aligns your work schedule with what your body wants to do.”
The circadian rhythm tells a body when to sleep and wake up. It runs a little longer than 24 hours, says Ashley Nixon, a psychology professor at the University of Ottawa. Morning light is a natural “reset,” she said.
Nixon’s concern is that the darker mornings in permanent daylight savings time will create a “social jetlag” where the body’s natural rhythms are not aligned with social obligations, such as school or work.
In his research lab, Antle studies how mice respond to slight jetlag. The mice adjust, he says, but they also develop heart disease and diabetes.
“Even in simple, well-controlled experiments, the strain of not listening to your body clock can actually lead to health consequences.”
Problems for youth
Some warn permanent daylight savings time will have particularly negative impacts on certain groups, such as teenagers.
Teenagers’ circadian rhythms are changing, causing them to stay up later and sleep in later. Because school schedules do not align with their bodies’ rhythms, teenagers are already operating on a form of social jetlag, says Wendy Hall, a professor emeritus of nursing at the University of British Columbia who researches sleep.
Permanent daylight savings time could make it even harder for youth to go to bed and wake up on time; the associated sleep loss increases their risk for mood disorders, she says.
“I think it’s going to be really tough,” Hall said, noting the mental health challenges many youth already face.
She says parents can help their teenaged children by making sure they have bedtimes, sleep in rooms without devices and spend time outside.
Hall, who is a member of the Canadian Sleep Research Consortium, says the consortium plans to conduct a survey this winter asking British Columbians how their mood under permanent daylight savings time compared to previous winters.
“We’re talking about a public health experiment that is going to affect millions of people, and that flies in the face of the research that’s been done about what the best time is,” she said.
“The world’s in a pretty big mess right now, and the last thing we need is a major public health experiment with people’s mood and well-being.”
However, not everyone is convinced time changes have a negative impact on physical health.
Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto, says that people have been debating the merits of time changes for decades.
People can adjust to working at different hours of the day or night, he says. “If there’s an effect [on health], it’s going to be small,” he said.
“The strongest rationale for elimination is that any scheduled change is just annoying.”
Temporary changes
Critics of permanent daylight savings time say they do not think the change will last.
Many other jurisdictions that have moved to permanent daylight savings time later changed their minds.
Russia adopted national daylight savings time in 2011, only to abandon it in 2014, citing concerns for youth mental health as one reason.
In the 1970s, the United States had national daylight savings time, but quickly abandoned it.
Canada also briefly had national daylight savings time during World War One and World War Two, in an attempt to increase production during the war years.
Antle says he thinks the provinces that have opted for year-round daylight savings time will change their minds, and eventually their clocks, again.
“Every time they’ve tried this, they’ve regretted it,” he said.
Even if permanent daylight savings time stays, Antle says it will not be as pleasant as many people think it will be.
Daylight savings time will not take away cold weather or create warmer temperatures.
“Nobody wants regular [things],” he said. “We all want the super size, the deluxe, the extra special edition, and that’s what daylight [savings time] sounds like.
“It makes us think of summer. I think people are conflating daylight with summer. It would be lovely to have summer year-round, but we can’t have that.”
