This weekend much of the U.S. and Canada will move clocks forward at 2:00 a.m. for daylight saving time, swapping an hour of morning light for more evening daylight. But for British Columbia this will be the last seasonal clock change: the province is moving to permanent daylight saving time after a public consultation that Premier David Eby said drew support from more than 90% of respondents. Eby told NPR that, given modern lifestyles and the province’s position on the far western edge of the time zone, people value the extra hour of light at the end of the day.
Not everyone agrees permanent daylight saving is a good idea. Sleep medicine and public-health experts warn that keeping clocks an hour ahead year-round carries health risks. Emily Manoogian, a circadian biology researcher and senior staff scientist, notes that the United States briefly tried year-round daylight saving in the 1970s and abandoned it after mornings were dark during commutes and school runs, contributing to fatal crashes.
The underlying issue is how our internal clocks align with daylight. Human circadian rhythms — which regulate sleep-wake cycles and many cardiovascular and metabolic processes — rely heavily on morning light to signal daytime. If people miss bright light in the morning and instead experience brighter evenings, bedtimes tend to shift later, mornings become harder, and daytime function can suffer. Over time, those shifts can impair cognition and metabolic health.
Research links clock changes and misaligned light exposure to real health harms. Studies have found short-term spikes in car accidents, heart attacks and strokes around the spring switch to daylight saving time. Major analyses suggest larger, longer-term effects from keeping clocks out of sync with solar time: a Stanford-led paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that twice-yearly clock changes take a measurable public-health toll. That study estimated that adopting permanent standard time could prevent roughly 300,000 strokes and more than 2 million cases of obesity compared with the current practice; permanent daylight saving would also reduce those harms, but to a smaller extent. Scientific and medical societies generally favor permanent standard time over permanent daylight saving for these reasons.
Eby acknowledged those health concerns but argued residents are used to dark winter mornings and prefer extra evening light for work, recreation and family time. The choice highlights a trade-off: later sunsets and longer evenings versus darker mornings with potential consequences for sleep and long-term health.
If you’re worried about the effects of clock changes or the shift to permanent daylight saving, experts suggest practical steps to protect sleep and circadian health:
– Maximize morning light exposure: go outdoors soon after waking when possible, or use very bright indoor lighting to simulate daylight if mornings are dark.
– Prioritize regular, sufficient sleep: adults generally need seven to nine hours nightly; keep sleep duration consistent.
– Time meals to your active day: eating during the day rather than late at night helps metabolism. Restricting eating to an 8–10 hour window and waiting an hour or two after waking to eat can improve metabolic markers.
– Shift children’s schedules gradually: move bedtimes and wake times by about 20 minutes per day over several days to ease transitions.
British Columbia’s move will test how communities balance lifestyle preferences with circadian and public-health considerations. Individuals can reduce personal risk by emphasizing morning light, steady sleep schedules and sensible meal timing as the province adjusts to the new clock policy.