Why daylight saving time is bad for health

Monday, November 01, 2010 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: daylight saving time, health, health news

(NaturalNews) Every fall, much of the world rolls back its clocks as part of the bi-annual daylight saving time (DST) ritual. In early spring, time gets moved forward to extend daylight hours, which makes for long summer days. But in the fall, the clock is moved back and everyone loses and hour. And some experts out of the U.K. say that this lost daylight hour is taking a huge toll on public health.

Cases of chronic illness are rapidly rising, and many attribute their onset to poor diet and increasing lack of exercise among populations. According to Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute in the U.K., losing an hour makes the lack of exercise problem even worse because people have less of an incentive to go outside and engage in physical activity when it is dark. So he and others are suggesting that the time roll-back come to an end.

Regular physical activity is important for preventing diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and even cancer. And engaging in at least 30 minutes to an hour of moderate or vigorous activity every day has been proven to not only ward off disease but improve mood and feelings of happiness. In light of this reality, it makes no sense to continue chopping off an hour of "accessible" daylight every year, wrote the team.

According to the study, most people surveyed indicated that they would welcome the elimination of the time rollback. After all, stopping the practice makes the days brighter and longer which, even apart from exercise, helps to at least improve poor mood and reduce depression -- two conditions that are known to increase during the winter months.

"It must be rare to find a means of vastly improving the health and well-being of nearly everyone in the population -- and at no cost," said Hillman. "Here we have it."

Sources for this story include:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-...