Canadian study warns permanent daylight saving could disrupt sleep and health

President Trump is pushing the United States Senate to adopt permanent daylight saving time, primarily to allow golfers to stay on course longer. However, a newly published Canadian research paper argues that the health costs of permanent DST could outweigh its benefits, recommending instead a shift to permanent standard time.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal study found that whilst permanent DST extends evening daylight for commuting and social activities, it prolongs darkness in winter mornings, disrupting circadian rhythms which normally run on a 24.2-hour cycle. Research cited in the analysis shows people on the western side of US time zones, where sun sets later, sleep approximately one hour less per week and experience lower productivity, with studies linking each additional hour of weekly sleep to around 5 percent higher long-term earnings. Education also suffers, with one Florida study finding that extra morning sunlight before school correlated with improved maths and reading scores comparable to meaningful class-size reductions.