News & Views

The health implications of Daylight Savings Tme are becoming the hot topic

W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

March 16, 2023

BY W. GIFFORD- JONES MD & DIANA GIFFORD-JONES

In a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris in 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote, “Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” In his advocacy for people to wake up and leverage the day, Franklin joked there should be a tax on window shutters, candles should be rationed, and canons should be fired at sunrise!

It was the small town of Port Arthur in northern Ontario that first changed the clocks by enactment on July 1^st, 1908.

In recent times, one of the main arguments for shifting the time to align with the sun focuses on energy savings during evening hours, but dozens of studies have shown the effect to be negligible.

Now, the health implications of Daylight Savings Time (DST) are becoming the hot topic, with researchers investigating its impact on everything from sleep patterns to heart health.

The effect of DST on sleep is significant. Numerous studies have found the time change can disrupt our sleep patterns, leading to sleep deprivation and increased fatigue. This is particularly true in spring, when we lose an hour of sleep and our bodies struggle to adjust to the new schedule.

The time change and associated disruption to sleep patterns can have more serious health consequences. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the risk of heart attacks increased by 25% on the Monday following the springtime change. This is powerful evidence that disturbed sleep patterns can be highly stressful on the cardiovascular system.

Mental health can be another victim. One study published in Sleep Medicine found the springtime change was associated with increased symptoms of depression, particularly in people who already had a history of depression. The study’s findings further suggested that the disruption to sleep patterns might even trigger the onset of depressive symptoms.

One strategy to mitigate these problems is to adjust sleep patterns leading up to the time change. For those observing a regular night-time routine, this means going to bed and waking up 15 minutes earlier each day in the week leading up to the change. Even for those without a firm pattern, making the effort to shift forward in advance – both physically and mentally – should help.

Another strategy is to prioritize good sleep. Create a comfortable sleep environment, establish a regular sleep schedule, and avoid caffeine and alcohol in the hours leading up to bedtime.

Are you tired of the debate about DST? Worse, are you “tired all the time”? You may need to take a closer look at the benefits of getting a good sleep. Sleep scientists can present compelling evidence showing how being tired leads to increased risk of traffic accidents, for example. Studies also link poor sleep with: obesity, diabetes, cancer and dementia. Abnormal sleep and psychiatric conditions go hand in glove.

Don’t forget the function of sleep as a sort of garbage collection system. During sleep, the body rejuvenates the brain by sorting “keeper” information from “trash”. Sleep also helps the body clear out and clean up waste in the cardiovascular system while refuelling immune function.

If there is a good argument in favour of DST, it might be Franklin’s suggestion to fire a canon each morning at sunrise. That would surely get people on their feet and outside to take a look. An early morning experience in the outdoors – whether it is a walk or even just a few moments of quiet contemplate about the new day – is an excellent step to good health.

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Written By W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, MD is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Harvard Medical School. He trained in general surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University and in Gynecology at Harvard. His storied medical career began as a general practitioner, ship’s surgeon, and hotel doctor. For more than 40 years, he specialized in gynecology, devoting his practice to the formative issues of women’s health. In 1975, he launched his weekly medical column that has been published by national and local Canadian and U.S. newspapers. Today, the readership remains over seven million. His advice contains a solid dose of common sense and he never sits on the fence with controversial issues. He is the author of nine books including, “The Healthy Barmaid”, his autobiography “You’re Going To Do What?”, “What I Learned as a Medical Journalist”, and “90+ How I Got There!” Many years ago, he was successful in a fight to legalize heroin to help ease the pain of terminal cancer patients. His foundation at that time donated $500,000 to establish the Gifford-Jones Professorship in Pain Control and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto Medical School. At 93 years of age he rappelled from the top of Toronto’s City Hall (30 stories) to raise funds for children with a life-threatening disease through the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Diana Gifford-Jones, the daughter of W. Gifford-Jones, MD, Diana has extensive global experience in health and healthcare policy. Diana is Special Advisor with The Aga Khan University, which operates 2 quaternary care hospitals and numerous secondary hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, and laboratories in South Asia and Africa. She worked for ten years in the Human Development sectors at the World Bank, including health policy and economics, nutrition, and population health. For over a decade at The Conference Board of Canada, she managed four health-related executive networks, including the Roundtable on Socio-Economic Determinants of Health, the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, the Canadian Centre for Environmental Health, and the Centre for Health System Design and Management. Her master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government included coursework at Harvard Medical School. She is also a graduate of Wellesley College. She has extensive experience with Canadian universities, including at Carleton University, where she was the Executive Director of the Global Academy. She lived and worked in Japan for four years and speaks Japanese fluently. Diana has the designation as a certified Chartered Director from The Directors College, a joint venture of The Conference Board of Canada and McMaster University. She has recently published a book on the natural health philosophy of W. Gifford-Jones, called No Nonsense Health – Naturally!

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