A Greater Victoria professor says the province is making a mistake with the permanent switch to daylight saving time.
The clocks spring ahead one final time in B.C. March 8. The provincial government announced the move March 3, saying it will improve people’s overall health, reduce disruptions for families, simplify scheduling and provide an extra hour of evening light during the winter months.
“Every parent knows that changing clocks twice a year causes a significant amount of chaos on already busy lives. British Columbians have been clear that seasonal time changes do not work for them,” Premier David Eby said. “This decision isn’t just about clocks. It’s about making life easier for families, reducing disruptions for businesses and supporting a stable, thriving economy. I am hopeful that our American neighbours will soon join us in ending disruptive time changes.”
The province cites 2019 public engagement that saw participation from a record 223,000 people, with 93 per cent supporting adopting year-round daylight saving. Similarly, across all industry groups and nearly all occupational groups, support for year-round DST observance was higher than 90 per cent.
Experts agree the biannual shifting is the least healthy option. Ending the seasonal time change provides more consistency and fewer disruptions to sleep patterns, school schedules and daily routines while allowing for heightened cohesion across things such as transportation and technology planning.
But more usable light on winter evenings is where they’re at an impasse.
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Research shows daylight saving time is the wrong choice for brains, and will have significant impact on sleep and circadian rhythms, says Camosun College psychology instructor Michael Pollock. Circadian rhythm is the body’s rough 24-hour clock – most people are about 12 minutes off – that regulates many physiological processes.
“In countries like Canada that are far from the equator, switching to permanent daylight saving time would mean we would be going to school or work in the dark for most of the winter,” Pollock says. “The really big problem with this is that getting early morning sunlight exposure is essential for keeping our brain’s internal clock synchronized with the natural day-night cycle. Without that bright light in the early morning, our internal clocks will keep wanting us to sleep in and stay up late each day.”
He notes the province’s own news release on the subject links to a report that outlines how Stanford Medicine researchers found staying on standard time would benefit the most people.
Daylight saving was only designed for summer, and sleep researchers and others have said for years that permanent standard time is the healthier choice. DST will provide a limited amount of more usable light for Greater Victoria to enjoy “recreational time” on winter evenings, Pollock notes, as the sun will set at 5:30 when many are still mid-commute.
“The only thing that keeps us from drifting is morning sunlight,” Pollock said.
That’s what keeps the brain in check, and with a 9 a.m. sunrise, kids will not only go to school in the dark, but potentially in a fog, according to sleep science. All winter, brains will be looking to sleep until the sun comes up. That will likely create social jet lag, or brain fog, throughout the day, particularly in young adults and adolescents.
“I think it will have a major disrupting effect,” Pollock said, noting similar decisions in history have been reversed.
The U.S. made a shift in 1974, and after one winter of complaints, the country returned to time changes. More recently, Russia stuck with daylight saving time in 2011 – only to shift to permanent standard time in 2014.
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“I can see the appeal, who wouldn’t want to save daylight all year around and get more extra sunlight in the evening after work, but in practice it doesn’t work,” he said.
Residents of northeastern B.C. (Peace River region and the northern Rocky Mountains) who currently observe mountain standard time year-round will continue to do so. Those in southeastern B.C. (East Kootenay and Golden region) will remain aligned with Alberta and continue to switch between mountain standard time and mountain daylight time.
The final “spring forward” will see some lingering effects, particularly on the roads, according to Road Safety at Work, among the advocacy groups happy with the end of biannual time changes.
Losing an hour of sleep can have longer-lasting effects, leaving drivers less alert and more vulnerable to crashes. In an average year, 513 people in B.C. are injured or killed in fatigue-related crashes, according to ICBC statistics.
People tend to think the danger is limited to the first day back at work after the clocks change, says spokesperson Trace Acres.
“Fatigue doesn’t reset overnight. Even small disruptions to sleep can accumulate, affecting reaction time, judgment, and attention for days afterward,” he said.
Drivers often underestimate how tired they still are as their bodies adjust to the new schedule.
That false sense of confidence can be reinforced by early spring conditions. Longer daylight and milder weather can make driving feel easier, even as fatigue lingers beneath the surface.
Road Safety at Work encourages drivers to treat the week following the time change as a high-risk period – prioritizing sleep, being honest about alertness and driving more cautiously even when conditions seem favourable.
Give yourself permission to take it slower, Acres says.
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Email: christine.vanreeuwyk@blackpress.ca
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