A UW Medicine sleep expert warns that permanent daylight-saving time could have unintended consequences for sleep, health, and learning.
"Daylight saving time is an artificial time construct, which essentially forces people to wake up an hour earlier than the sun would have them wake up," said Dr. Vishesh Kapur, professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and co-director of the UW Medicine Sleep Center.
Kapur says permanent daylight-saving time would have its biggest impact during the winter, when mornings are already dark. In Seattle, sunrise on New Year's Day would shift from about 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., leaving many children traveling to school before sunrise.
"When individuals have to make a time change where they have to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, that is much more difficult to adjust to," Kapur said.
Standard time aligns better with the body's natural clock, he added, arguing that year-round daylight saving time could increase sleep deprivation and negatively affect public health, particularly for people with early morning schedules and those who are naturally late risers.
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