Is it time to ditch the clock switch? Our readers give us the answer on daylight saving time

  Falling back and springing forward. This phrase gives people either great anticipatory pain or no feeling at all. Whether to keep daylight saving time (DST) around or ditch it completely for a consistent time is one of the most non-controversial controversies of our time.

When polled on this subject on our website back in 2022, our readers voted 88% in favour—209 votes—to ditch the twice-a-year switch and keep to a consistent time. A national poll from Narrative Research saw 85% of Canadians say the same. Social media posts on the subject also seem to lean in favour of scrapping the switch and keeping it consistent year-round.

For those of you who are completely unaware of these time switches until they abruptly occur, here’s a quick explanation. Because the Earth’s annual trip around the sun leads to longer and shorter days and nights, changing the clocks seasonally is a way of “saving” the “daylight” for when people are awake. On the second Sunday of March, most of Canada turns the clock forward one hour to allow for more sunlight during the evening, ending on the first Sunday of November when the clock is turned back one hour.

DST itself is a wartime holdover. Though it was first enacted in Port Arthur, Ont. in 1908, it didn’t become a national or international trend until World War I, when governments adopted it to conserve coal by adding another hour of sunlight. While some countries abandoned the practice after the war, others kept it, including Canada.

For some, this change amounts to giving us minus one hour of sleep or plus one hour of sleep, depending on the change—and yet, both are cause for a lot of frustration. Parents who have trouble getting their kids to adjust to the difference. Working people who have to night drive at 5pm during the winter months.

The Narrative Research study saw 88% of Nova Scotians polled say they are in support of keeping the clocks set forward. This would mean our evenings would include an extra hour of sun year-round, rather than have a bit of extra sun in the morning from “falling back.”

However, this poll was released in 2020. We wanted to see if we could get data that is more recent and reflects the current opinions of Haligonians. Therefore, we polled our readers through our daily newsletter and website.

Results

First, the website poll. Those who voted were overwhelmingly in favour of keeping the clocks consistent, with that option getting 156 votes—78% of the total. Only 27 votes went towards keeping our current “spring forward, fall back” system—15%.

Even more surprising was our newsletter poll. While we received similar results, with 82% voting to make the time consistent year-round, we had a total of 1,315 responses, meaning 1,081 people voted in favour of scrapping the switch. That’s more votes than a lot of council candidates got in the recent Halifax election. Furthermore, many left comments on why they felt the way they did.

While most propose keeping to DST for more sunlight in the evening—which British Columbia passed legislation to do in 2019—some of our readers said they would prefer to keep to daylight standard time.

Another reader proposed that the start of DST leads to an increase in car collisions. We fact-checked this, and it turned out to be true. A 2020 study published in Current Biology claims the spring transition increased the risk of fatal traffic accidents by 6%, and that around 28 accidents could be prevented yearly if the transition was abolished. The study attributes this increased risk in part to sleep deprivation and circadian misalignment due to the lost hour.

A reader also claimed that there is less crime and better general health during DST. The claim on crime stems from a working paper conducted by researchers at Stanford University, where they found there was a 51% decrease in robberies during the extra hour of sunlight, while violent crimes were also reduced by around the same rate.

While we couldn’t find concrete proof of the health claim, there is evidence suggesting the transition to DST can create both short-term and long-term health impacts. The short-term include fatigue and blood pressure changes, but long-term impacts include depression, slowed metabolism, weight gain and cluster headaches. There have also been links established to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, strokes, mental health and cognitive issues, and digestive and immune-related disorders.

From this data and research, it’s fair to say that skipping the switch could indeed be good not only for those who don’t want to lose an hour of sleep in the spring but also to reduce car collisions and the risk of serious health problems.

While BC has led the charge in abolishing DST, it has yet to enact its policy as it waits for states on the West Coast to do the same to not interrupt business operations. Most recently, Quebec has launched consultations on abolishing DST, though there are no promises that it’ll happen.

Atlantic premiers also discussed adopting permanent DST at a meeting in 2022, but there has been no progress on that front since.

So, while we continue to be stuck in our twice-a-year switch, we could potentially see DST becoming the norm if provinces and states within the same time zone agree to do it at the same time.

Also, remember to move your clocks backward one hour on Sunday, Nov. 3.