“You’re getting less light in the morning now,” explains Bin. “[So] it’s particularly hard to transition because we’re asking people to do a phase advance, which is rising early and going to bed early.”
Because of this, many sleep experts have advocated for the abolishment of daylight saving time, and such research has informed debates and policies around the practice. In 2019, European Parliament voted to abolish the changing of the clocks, although this has yet to come into effect while in Australia, there have been similar calls to cut back on daylight saving.
What this new research suggests
While previous research has focused on sleep during the immediate transition period to daylight saving, Leon Lack, a sleep expert at Flinders University and lead author of the new study, says this is the first to comprehensively examine potential long-term effects of the change.
Importantly, the study did not pinpoint the period in which these effects subside, which Lack says could happen in a matter of weeks.
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“What we do know is we can’t find any evidence of it after two or three months,” he says.
Lack doesn’t deny the effects of daylight savings on our body clocks in the short term, but says these findings put them into perspective. He points to jet lag as an example of the effect of changing time zones, and the fact its impacts are often only short-lived.
Research associate and co-author of the study from the Flinders sleep health team, Reece Kemp, says the biggest implications of the findings is that it “alters the conversation about daylight saving time and removing it”.
Kemp says it’s important to remember that this study is just a snapshot in time. The next steps are for researchers to look more closely at the short-term effect of daylight saving and whether some groups may be more susceptible to its effects than others.
“All we can say is that by the middle to late stages of daylight saving, people’s sleep is comparable to those on standard time throughout the year.”
Bin, who was not involved in the study, agrees the findings add to our understanding of daylight saving and sleep, but says she’d want to see “more objective measures of sleep or of other health outcomes.”
“But those things are really hard to collect.”
How to transition to daylight saving
To navigate the transition to daylight saving and maintain a healthy sleep routine, Lack says it’s important to stick to your regular bedtime and wake-up time.
“In other words, don’t sleep in late, particularly on Sunday morning, but get up early and get exposed to light in the morning.”
Avoiding light after sundown, such as light from phones or overhead lights, is also helpful, says Bin.
Lack says children and teens, who can find it particularly difficult to adjust, should try to stick to their usual school routine (school holidays in Victoria end this weekend, while students return to school in NSW the following week) or risk accruing sleep debt.
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