On the night between Saturday and Sunday, the clocks in many European countries, including Serbia, were moved back by one hour. This means that summer time is over and we have switched to winter time.
This seasonal weather change occurs twice a year. Although changing the clock has been a standardized practice for years and is common to most of Europe and the US, as well as parts of Canada, Australia and Latin America, health experts warn that it can be harmful to people's health.
Last week, a team of researchers from the British Sleep Society released a statement urging the UK government to abandon the practice of changing the time twice a year. The announcement was published in the Journal of Sleep Research, and it calls for the adoption of standard time throughout the year because it is closer to "the natural cycles of light-dark, i.e. day-night", reports B92.
"Restoring permanent standard time would mean that our clocks are aligned with solar time. This would mean earlier sunsets during the summer, but there would be additional health and sleep benefits due to increased exposure to sunlight from fall to spring," he said in a statement. Malcolm don Shanz, Professor of Chronobiology at Northumbria University and member of the Northumbria Sleep Research Centre.
The researchers add that maintaining a good sleep routine and exposure to natural daylight in the morning are important components of human health. Disturbances in any of these factors can lead to negative consequences.
"If you don't have that morning light exposure, then you're not regulating your body clock as well as you could. There's really a certain time in the morning when you need good light exposure to regulate your body clock. That allows you to fall asleep early enough at night," he says. for Euronews Health Dr Megan Crawford, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde.
As he adds, if this doesn't happen, you're somehow burning the candle at both ends - you're losing a night's sleep and getting poor quality sleep, and poor quality sleep is linked to many mental and physical health outcomes.
Effects on health
One of the main reasons that experts highlight as an argument for the abolition of time change is the impact on the human circadian rhythm. It is the body's biological clock that functions in a twenty-four-hour cycle. According to researchers, it plays a role in regulating basic body functions, including sleep, hormone release, metabolism and mood.
Disturbances resulting from the gain or loss of an hour of sleep disrupt the natural sleep cycle and affect these functions.
Megan Crawford explains that while the weather change doesn't make a difference during the summer, when sunrises are still very early, it doesn't during other seasons.
"In spring and autumn, the sunrise is a bit later, so by getting up an hour earlier, we can get up in the dark. And this is really problematic because we need morning sunlight to regulate our body clocks and for optimal sleep," she said.
Exposure to light keeps the circadian cycle in sync with the 24-hour day, as morning light encourages natural awakening and enables early sleep in the evening, according to the release.
Increased risk of heart attack and stroke
However, exposure to light at night, which can occur during clock shifts, makes it difficult to fall asleep and wake up on time. Multiple scientific studies have also found evidence of increased adverse health effects following climate change.
For example, a meta-analysis based on seven studies involving more than 100.000 participants found that there was a significantly higher risk of heart attack on Sundays following the clock change in spring and fall. Another study by researchers in Finland found that stroke hospitalizations increased in the first two days after the weather change.
Research has also found a link to both an increase in mental health problems and mood disorders, particularly in vulnerable individuals. This includes an increase in the suicide rate in the weeks following the start of daylight savings time.
Crawford attributes resistance to ending the practice of changing daylight savings time to a "lack of understanding," stressing that the benefits of extended evening daylight during the summer will remain regardless of whether Daylight Savings Time is used.
"A lot of people think daylight saving time gives them more sunlight or more daylight, but that's not going to change. The sun isn't going to change just because we change our schedules," she said.
Stav EU
In 2018, the European Commission proposed the abolition of changing the clock twice a year in the European Union. As part of the proposal, it also conducted an online survey to ascertain the views of EU residents on the subject.
Support for ending the clock change was strong, with rates as high as 95 percent in Poland and Finland to 44 percent in Greece.
Polls showed that the vast majority of respondents were in favor of abolishing this practice. On average, 84 percent of people across the EU support the change.
However, while the European Parliament voted to adopt the change, the European Council disagreed. As a result, the clock continued to advance.
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