Sleep experts say take advantage of the time change this weekend

It’s the good weekend — if you like sleep.

Daylight Saving Time ends early Sunday morning, and many experts say you should try to maximize the benefits of getting some extra shut-eye as the clock falls back to Standard Time.

“Sometimes, with the busyness of life, you don’t always appreciate having wellness and good functioning,” said Dr. Jerome Alonso, medical director of Canadian Sleep Consultants. “And sleep is our ultimate restoration — there is nothing else we do in our lives that will restore us to the level we get from sleep. It helps with overall wellbeing.”

Dr. Susan Kwan agrees that sleep has a significant impact on overall health.

“Sleep is very important because, really, it is cleaning up all the waste within the brain and restoring your health, as well as your mood,” she told CityNews sister station OMNI News.

Kwan points to a new paper from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine that backs the idea of doing away with the time changes in spring and fall.

“With the change in March to Daylight Saving Time, studies have shown there are increases in irregular heart rates, atrial fibrillation, heart attacks, as well as emotional stress due to the time change,” she said.

“This is also quite well-published in terms of medical literature. Based on all this, [the academy] proposed that we should just stay with Standard Time instead of changing back and forth with Daylight Saving Time.”

While there has been discussion and promises made about ending the practice of having our clocks “fall back” and “spring forward,” Daylight Saving Time still exists in B.C., as well as most other jurisdictions in North America.

Many U.S. states have passed measures to stay on Daylight Saving Time permanently, a move some call “lock the clock,” but they can’t opt out of the time changes unless the U.S. Congress repeals federal legislation.

Former B.C. premier John Horgan had promised B.C. would do the same — working with Washington, Oregon, and California — but was unable to create a Pacific Time Zone where the time would not switch back and forth twice-yearly, despite passing widely backed legislation in 2019.