Time change | One year too many?

The night of Saturday to Sunday, Quebec changes time. As since 1940, Quebecers will gain an hour of sleep and go to bed an hour later this Sunday. If mechanical watches will not adapt themselves, biological clocks should also be disturbed by this shift.

Twice a year, Juans-Dominic Brouillette, watchmaker from Montreal, embarks on a tedious ritual. “On Monday morning, I have almost two hours of work just to set all the clocks on time,” he says. He performs this gesture as many times as there are mechanisms used to count time in his store. The rest of Quebecers will do the same, once or twice, rarely more.

The time change also requires the adaptation of a more complex machine. “The brain has a biological clock that regulates our lives for about 24 hours. Suddenly, we jostle her for an hour,” explains Roger Godbout, professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Montreal. According to him, the effects of this shift would mainly affect night workers, but also the youngest and the oldest, whom a change of pace disrupts more radically.

Last affected by the time change, insomniacs and other victims of sleep disorders. “For someone who already has insomnia problems and a more fragile quality of sleep, a one-hour delay has medium and long-term repercussions,” notes Julien Heon, vice-president of the care clinic of the Haleo sleep.

Less light, more hassle

However, according to Nadia Gosselin, scientific director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Sleep Medicine, this change would be less difficult than that of the spring. It actually saves us an hour of sleep. On the contrary, “what is more difficult in November is that we are less exposed to light. It affects our organism and our mood, because we are very sensitive to the light we receive,” she explains.

“We need light to activate the hormones that must function during the day and to stop them during the night”, develops Professor Godbout. The lack of light “also affects the neurotransmitters which are sometimes involved in the symptoms of depression and in our mood”, adds Nadia Gosselin.

The scientific consensus

Should we stop changing the time twice a year? “There are no longer any clear reasons justifying this change. Every year there are negative impacts, such as the increase in the number of heart attacks during this period and an increase in depression,” confirms Rebecca Robillard, professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa.

Nadia Gosselin and Robert Godbout support, for their part, the conclusions of the American Association of Sleep Medicine and the European Society of Sleep Medicine, which recommend respect for standard time, that which places the sun at the zenith at midday.

Mexico took the plunge on Wednesday, October 26 with a vote in Congress: its next time change will be the last. A decision that reflects a global questioning of the practice. In March 2019, the European Commission already proposed a draft directive ending seasonal time changes. However, the majority of Western countries continue to apply this rule.