Eeny, meeny, miny, moe—Summer time and out are you? The working population in the EU would likely benefit from elimination of daylight saving time

• Published in: Wiener Klinische Wochenschrift Vol. 136; no. 13-14; pp. 375 - 377
• Main Authors: Schernhammer, Eva S., Strohmaier, Susanne, Vonderlind, Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01.07.2024
• Subjects: Circadian Rhythm - physiology; Endocrinology; European Union; Gastroenterology; Humans; Internal Medicine; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Photoperiod; Pneumology/Respiratory System; Seasons; Short Report; Sunlight; Work Schedule Tolerance; Circadian system; European Union; Day light saving time; Summer time
• ISSN: 0043-5325; 1613-7671; 1613-7671
• DOI: 10.1007/s00508-023-02311-3

Summary Daylight (saving) time (DST) is an over one century old practice to maximize the overlap between natural day light and individual active time (i.e., non-sleep time). Whether to abandon the practice is subject to an ongoing, twice a year intensifying debate. A request to abandon the practice is based on the lack of benefits in terms of energy savings and potential negative health effects. We present a tool that captures one key aspect of importance to the circadian system: maximizing the overlap of natural day light with human active time, focusing on early morning light exposure as the primary stimulus for our circadian system. Based on publicly available data we incorporated an approximation of the 27 European Union (EU) countries’ spatial population distribution into a calculation of average exposure to morning sunlight under DST or no DST conditions for each EU27 country and the entire region. An online app offers visualization of these differences on the country level alongside a population-weighted average for the EU27. Our findings support that the majority of the EU’s working population would likely benefit from the elimination of daylight saving time if maximizing an adequate morning stimulus is the primary goal and adjusting actual time zones or biennially changing the clock is not an option.