Advance and delay the clock one hour, new arguments in the debate that does not stop

The seasonal change of time does not affect the duration of the daylight period —a natural phenomenon alien to human conventions— but allows its use to be optimized by taking advantage of the morning light to carry out activities and thus achieve more hours of daytime leisure.

This is the axis on which the study is based that professors Jorge Mira Pérez and José María Martín Olalla, from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) and the University of Seville (US) in Spain, have just published in the journal Sleep, under the title “It is time to understand daylight saving time” and in which they analyze the naturalness and usefulness of the seasonal change of time in response to a manifesto from the Sleep Research Society that calls for its end in the United States and the adoption of winter time permanently. In relation to the time change that will take place in the United States on March 12, the researchers consider that “the cancellation of the practice will not improve the current scenario in the range of latitudes on which the United States is located.”

However, they believe that the change of spring comes too soon in the United States, and the change of autumn is too late, which especially affects people with later working hours. In the researchers’ opinion, if it is accepted that the dates of the time changes should be modified for the benefit of the population, the spring change should take place after the equinox, at the beginning of April, as was the case in the United States until 2007. “In the same way, if the fall change came at the beginning of October, as it was until 1954, many workers and school-age children would no longer be subjected to the stressful twilight hours of October mornings,” the researchers explain in their work. authors.

The researchers go on to point out that modern societies, governed by pre-established schedules, can only seasonally regulate their activity in hourly bursts, as is done with the current change. The momentary inconveniences of this alteration, according to the experts, are offset by a better alignment of the start of the activity with sunrise. In their work they point out that, in practice, the population does not vary their schedules after the changes, an indication of the success of the measure, warn Jorge Mira Pérez and José María Martín Olalla. “It is not easy to keep a fixed gear of the clock all year round, when the hours of sunrise change from winter to summer; we alleviate that need by seasonally changing the time, and if we didn’t, we would seasonally change the work schedules”, they clarify.

Moving the clock forward and back one hour, alternating between summer time and winter time, offers advantages but also some drawbacks. (Illustration: Amazings/NCYT)

The authors underline the fact that the winter day is short, which conditions human activity; while the summer night is also of shorter duration, which conditions the reconciliation of sleep; and this regardless of whether or not to change the time. “We note that winter sunrise and summer sunset are twelve hours apart, regardless of latitude. If human activity begins with winter dawn and seasonal timing is used, then summer onset of human activity and summer dusk are eleven hours apart, probably long enough for adequate sleep. Those who have an onset of activity earlier than sunrise in winter may find that the time regulation is less adequate in summer. But it is noteworthy that the regulation itself has helped to prevent human activity from developing before the winter dawn”, they explain.

“In summer, either you go to bed early, shortly after dark, or you get up late, long after dawn,” explains Jorge Mira, who has been a member of the Spanish Government commission for the analysis of official time. José María Martín Olalla, a researcher in the social uses of time, with special emphasis on human adaptation to the seasonal cycle of light and darkness, adds “we know the inconveniences of practicing the time change, that is, the inconvenience of changing the clock twice a year; we forget its advantages and we do not know the inconveniences of not having practiced it”.

The greatest concern of the chronobiology and sleep community lies in the risks that the one-hour jump produces. In this sense, the authors of the study propose a preventive adaptation by altering, for example, the alarm clock in the weeks prior to the change of spring in four stages of fifteen minutes, three stages of 20, or two of 30.

The time change in Europe will take place on Sunday, March 26, while in New Zealand, Australia and Chile it will take place on Sunday, April 3. (Source: US)