On a recent trip we woke up to discover the clocks had changed overnight and we were in a daylight saving time-zone.
We only realised because I noticed my phone was an hour ahead of my husband’s.
Apparently his phone wasn’t set to auto-update the time, based on location.
It led to a bit of a frenetic morning, but as we crossed the border back into Queensland, we realised we would gain back the hour we had ‘lost’.
Suddenly all felt right with the world again!
Changing the clocks triggers the usual arguments that Queensland should ‘fall in line’ with the southern states.
But my husband was recently doing some research around the topic, only to discover not everyone who has daylight saving is that happy with it.
For some it’s just the annoyance of changing all the clocks, although most digital devices do it automatically (unless, like my husband, you have that setting disabled).
But others say it seriously impacts their health.
Changing the time, even if it’s only by an hour, disrupts our internal body clock, or circadian rhythm.
This controls not only when we go to bed, but also many biological processes such as metabolism and immune function.
After a bit digging around myself, I was surprised to find that many scientists and health bodies are completely opposed to it.
I found an interesting article on this by the University of Queensland’s Institue of Molecular Bioscience. It says:
This misalignment between internal clocks and social schedules is termed ‘social jetlag,’ and has significant health repercussions. Documented effects include inadequate sleep, decreased attention, increased metabolic and cardiovascular issues, mood disorders, and even a shortened lifespan.
Yikes.
But it’s not just Australians having this debate.
Professional societies around the world, with an interest in chronobiology, are also calling for an end to daylight saving.
In 2020 the American Academy of Sleep Medicine published a position statement, aligned with the European Sleep Research Society, European Biological Rhythms Society, and Society for Research on Biological Rhythms’ position, calling for the abolishment of daylight saving time in favour of the maintenance of standard time year-round.
Now this really is a fascinating debate – health impacts – and nothing to do with cows and curtains!😉
I particularly like the last line of the UQ article:
The debate should not be “Why don’t Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia have daylight saving?” but rather “Why southern states still do?”.
Maybe we should sleep on it…
Ann 🙏