Why turning the clocks back is bad for health

Not putting the clocks back this weekend would be a simple step which would "vastly improve" our health and well-being, an expert said.

Sticking to British Summer Time in the winter, and putting the clocks forward in the spring would give adults around 300 additional hours of daylight a year, and 200 more for children.

This would allow more time for outdoor activities throughout the year, said Dr Mayer Hillman, a senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute.

Lack of physical activity is a major risk factor for many chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers. Surveys have also revealed a trend towards declining fitness in the UK. More than half the population is predicted to be clinically obese by 2050.

Research has shown that people feel happier, are more energetic and have lower sickness rates in the longer and brighter days of summer, whereas the shorter and darker days of winter have the opposite effect.

According to Dr Hillman, there is strong public support for the clock change – about 80 per cent in England and Wales support the change while those in Scotland are evenly divided.

In today's British Medical Journal, he writes that adopting the proposed clock change “is an effective, practical and remarkably easily managed way of achieving a better alignment of our waking hours with the available daylight during the year.

“It must be rare to find a means of vastly improving the health and well-being of nearly everyone in the population – and at no cost. Here we have it. All it requires is a majority of MPs walking through the ‘Ayes’ lobby in the House of Commons.”

This article was published on Fri 29 October 2010