--- description: The Canadian province of British Columba is making the switch to permanent Daylight Saving Time. title: The Health Impact of Making Daylight Saving Time Permanent image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt21812070ac1a07ce/69b048aa1b001048fda432c8/canada-british-columbia-daylight-saving-time-permanent.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Sleep](/tag/sleep/) ## Sleep Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Daylight Saving Time Is Bad For Your Health. This Canadian Province Just Made It Permanent  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Mar 5, 2026 6:25 PM CUT  Views around Vancouver as seen from the water's edge and around Stanley Park on Sept. 14, 2025 in Vancouver, Canada. Views around Vancouver as seen from the water's edge and around Stanley Park on Sept. 14, 2025 in Vancouver, Canada.James D. Morgan—Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large Mar 5, 2026 6:25 PM CUT Want to meet some smart Canadians? Head to Kootenay, a mountainous region in southeast British Columbia—specifically to the town of Creston. On March 8, most of North America and Europe, along with some Caribbean and Central American Countries, will move their clocks one hour forward and commence Daylight Saving Time (DST). But as the [Canadian Broadcasting Company reports](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-adopting-year-round-daylight-time-9.7111657 "undefined"), unlike those other places, once the move is made, British Columbia will stick with the change, not going back to Standard Time next fall. "We are done waiting. British Columbia is going to change our clocks just one more time—and then never again," [said the province’s Premier David Eby](https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/seasonal/social-media-reacts-to-b-c-s-decision-to-switch-to-permanent-daylight-time "undefined") in his March 1 announcement. The little town of Creston, however, is opting out—abiding by a local tradition of sticking with Standard Time year-round, “without any hassle” of the twice-a-year clock change, says the [Explore Creston Valley website](https://www.explorecrestonvalley.com/time-zone#:~:text=While%20we%20are%20on%20Mountain,of%20Saskatchewan%20do%20the%20same! "undefined"). And I, in turn, say bravo Creston. DST—not to put too fine a point on it—is a scourge, a time when clocks align with the will of the legislatures that make the laws, but not with the more compelling cycles of the sun and our bodies. It’s a season when we wake up in the dark, before dawn has broken, and then must suffer interminable evenings when the sun—like a dinner guest who has lingered long past the cigars and port—is still hanging about. DST has been [associated with increased episodes](http://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2017/05000/daylight%5Fsavings%5Ftime%5Ftransitions%5Fand%5Fthe.7.aspx "undefined") of unipolar and bipolar depression, higher rates of [ischemic stroke](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27938913/ "undefined"), more [workplace injuries](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19702372/ "undefined") and [traffic accidents](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34482615/ "undefined"), and [more cases of obesity](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2508293122 "undefined"). **Read more:** [_What to Know About Daylight Saving Time as Another Clock Change Looms_](https://time.com/7382399/daylight-saving-time-change-2026-when-why-health-sleep/ "undefined") “We go from Standard Time, which is more aligned with the sun, to daylight saving time, and we see a lot of negative things that happen afterwards,” says Dr. Karin Johnson, professor of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine-Baystate and chair of the [Coalition for Permanent Standard Time](https://ditchdst.com/ "undefined"), which is associated with the [American Academy of Sleep Medicine](https://aasm.org/ "undefined") (AASM). “\[There are\] a lot of bad outcomes, and people just don't like it.” The polling reflects that. DST is admittedly wildly popular in British Columbia—with [93%](https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2026AG0013-000209 "undefined") of respondents approving of it year-round. [Turkey has also adopted DST](https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/turkey-scraps-dst-2016.html#:~:text=Permanently%20on%20UTC+3,Advertising:%20Content%20continues%20below%20ad. "undefined") throughout the year. But those two are decided outliers. [According to the Pew Research Center](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/26/most-countries-dont-observe-daylight-saving-time/ "undefined"), only about a third of countries around the world observe DST at all—most of them in North America and Europe. [One 2018 survey](https://transport.ec.europa.eu/transport-themes/summertime%5Fen#:~:text=The%20Commission%20has%20also%20carried,the%20results%20of%20the%20consultation%20. "undefined") by the European Commission reported a whopping 84% disapproval rating for DST across the continent. In the U.S., [a 2025 Gallup poll](https://news.gallup.com/poll/657584/half-daylight-saving-time-sunsetted.aspx "undefined") found a smaller but still significant majority of 54% supporting the abolition of DST in favor of year-round Standard Time. The AASM is in agreement with the DST opponents. [In a 2020 position paper](https://link.springer.com/article/10.5664/jcsm.8780 "undefined") published in the _Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine,_ the group said, “​​An abundance of accumulated evidence indicates that the acute transition from standard time to Daylight Saving Time incurs significant public health and safety risks…It is, therefore, the position of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine that these seasonal time changes should be abolished in favor of a fixed, national, year-round Standard Time.” It’s those risks to health that provide the biggest arguments against DST. [A Sept. 2025](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2508293122 "undefined") study in the _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,_ for example, [found that](https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/09/daylight-saving-time.html "undefined") permanent Standard Time would lower the U.S. prevalence of obesity by 0.78% (or 2.6 million cases) and of stroke by 0.09% (or 300,000). [A 2018 paper](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11739-018-1900-4 "undefined") in the journal _Internal and Emergency Medicine_ found up to a 29% increase in heart attacks following the switch to DST. The problem is that messing with the time also messes with our circadian rhythms—which disrupts virtually every system in the body. “We’re changing the clocks but we’re not changing the signals our body aligns to,” says Johnson. Those signals are set by the rising and setting of the sun, and it’s when we’re on standard time that dawn most aligns with the time we wake up and dusk most aligns with when we’re readying for bed. This can throw off our sleep cycles, which in turn leads to inflammation and hormone dysregulation, and increases in the stress hormone known as cortisol. That [causes cardiac, metabolic, and other downstream health effects](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1993964/#:~:text=Abstract,to%20putative%20mechanisms%20for%20hypertension. "undefined"). And it’s not just in the few days surrounding the clock change—when we would presumably be getting adjusted to darker mornings and brighter evenings—that our bodies feel the effects; our circadian system struggles throughout the entire season. “Months after,” says Johnson, "hormone levels have adjusted a little, but they’re still closer to Standard Time.” Mental health can be affected too, with the Pennsylvania-based [Cognitive Behavior Institute reporting](https://www.papsychotherapy.org/blog/springtime-daylight-saving-time-and-its-impact-on-mental-health "undefined") that symptoms of anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorder all increase following the time shift. **Read more:** [_The 1 Small Change That Can Reset Your Sleep_](https://time.com/7382327/sleep-consistency-wake-up-time/ "undefined") There’s a certain measure of bait-and-switch in DST too, particularly when it comes to traffic safety. One of the common arguments for turning clocks forward in the spring is that it creates an hour more of daylight in the evening, making the roads safer for people driving home from work or going out in the early evening. But the change also means darker mornings for people commuting to their jobs. And disrupted sleep can spell distracted or fatigued driving. [One Spanish study](https://journals.lww.com/epidem/fulltext/2018/09000/excess%5Frisk%5Fof%5Ffatal%5Froad%5Ftraffic%5Faccidents%5Fon%5Fthe.25.aspx "undefined") published in the journal _Epidemiology_ found a startling 30% increase in fatal car accidents from 1990 to 2014 on the day clocks sprang forward. Workplace errors, particularly in hospitals, are associated with DST distraction as well. [A 2020 study](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7859153/ "undefined") in the _Journal of General Internal Medicine_ found that medical errors such as administering the wrong medication to patients increased up to 8.8% in the seven days following the switch to DST. “Writing the wrong prescription or \[caregivers\] sticking themselves with needles are definitely increased if people aren’t getting enough sleep or good quality sleep,” says Johnson. Another promise of DST proponents—that more daylight hours will lead to reduced energy consumption due to less energy burned lighting homes and businesses—has fallen flat too. The [rising popularity of LED bulbs](https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/led-lighting "undefined")—which use 75% less energy than incandescent bulbs—means lighting is making up a smaller and smaller share of the nation’s energy budget, making DST gains negligible. Meanwhile, additional hours of daylight lead to increased air conditioning use—something that is especially concerning as climate change raises mean temperatures, especially during daylight hours. [Hawaii and Arizona are the only U.S. states](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/states-without-daylight-saving-time/ "undefined") that don’t observe DST, and in the case of Arizona, the move came in an attempt to keep those cooling costs down. The state’s air conditioning costs are lower than neighboring states that do observe DST, according to Johnson. For now it doesn’t look like the rest of the U.S. is ready to follow most of the rest of the world and get off the DST train. In December 2024, then-President-elect Donald Trump announced in [a Truth Social post](https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113647254141876924 "undefined") that the Republican Party would endeavor to end DST, calling it “inconvenient, and very costly to our nation.” But once in the White House [he labeled it a “50-50” issue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UB0THtBAt0 "undefined") and backed away from ending the annual clock change. Since 2018, Congress has regularly taken up the [Sunshine Protection Act](https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/daylight-saving-time-ends-on-sunday-heres-what-to-know "undefined"), which would follow British Columbia’s lead and enshrine DST nationwide and year-round—but the bill has never cleared both chambers of Congress and made it to the president’s desk for a signature. Nineteen state legislatures have laws on the books making similar provisions, but the [Uniform Time Act of 1966](https://www.transportation.gov/regulations/time-act "undefined") prevents those measures from taking effect without the consent of the federal government. So for now, the semi-annual back-dialing and future-tripping will continue—with legislation to change it advancing only slowly. Johnson says that since the Coalition for Permanent Standard Time has been educating the public more on the harms of DST, states have stopped pushing for that as a permanent shift. Instead, she says, “We’re seeing many more states that are at least introducing bills for permanent Standard time.” Until they pass, prepare once again for all of the many clocks in your life—in your kitchen, on your night stand, on your phone, computer, watch, tablet, appliances, TV, and in the circadian systems of your very cells—to do their seasonal dance. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7382688/british-columbia-permanent-daylight-saving-time-health-impact/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7382688/british-columbia-permanent-daylight-saving-time-health-impact/"},"headline":"Daylight Saving Time Is Bad For Your Health. 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