Science Says Daylight Savings Time Not So Good

Reading The Sunday Herald's Putting clocks forward has ‘enormous impact’ on health, I am thinking "So that is why we are acting so strange...."

IT'S A convention which allows us to enjoy long summer evenings, but switching to daylight savings time could also be responsible for drastically disrupting the body's internal clock.

According to researchers, the one-hour time jump that takes place in the spring - when clocks are put forward one hour- can result in people's natural circadian rhythms being disturbed for nearly a fifth of the year.

And they argued this could be having an "enormous" impact on health by interfering with the body's "seasonal" defences to viruses.

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Roenneberg pointed out the ability of humans in the Western world to adjust to the changing seasons had already been disrupted by modern indoor living which reduces exposure to fluctuations in temperatures and light, but argued DST was "messing about with the system even more".

"Over the course of seasons, we are exposed to different enemies' such as bacteria and viruses, which our immune system should be able to fight against," he said. "Biological internal timing systems have evolved to accommodate and anticipate environmental changes, so they can react appropriately and proactively.

"If we are perturbing these systems, we could potentially prevent our seasonal adaptation to be really effective. In general, the consequences may be minor, but if you add them up they could lead to enormous health costs."

Roenneberg said further research was now planned to examine the differences between people living in countries without DST compared to those which have it.

"We should take this very seriously and investigate the potential consequences of DST," he added.