The Americans just “fell back” last Sunday, turning their clocks backward and gaining an hour of sleep they’ll dutifully lose again come March. Meanwhile, here in Victoria, we’re heading in the opposite direction; our own clock-changing circus occurs in April and October, because apparently we need to time-shift out of sync with the rest of the world. It’s all a bit mad.
The American Clock-Change Circus Continues
The US has just gone through another round of daylight saving discourse, complete with the usual chorus of “why are we still doing this?” and the equally predictable answer of “because Congress hasn’t gotten around to changing it yet.” Despite the Sunshine Protection Act being reintroduced in January to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, it hasn’t even reached a vote. Classic government efficiency.
The Health Impacts We Keep Ignoring
However, what caught my attention in the American coverage is that the health impacts are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Dr Tara Narula, a chief medical correspondent, notes it can take seven days to weeks for people to adjust to the time change properly. The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine both recommend that we abandon the twice-yearly time change altogether and adopt standard time, the one that aligns us with natural sunlight patterns.
The research is increasingly damning. Studies have linked the time change to increased heart attacks, strokes, abnormal heart rhythms, sleep disruption, mood disturbances, and even suicide. That’s not a minor list of side effects for what’s essentially an administrative convenience introduced during World War I to save energy.
Side note: The energy-saving argument has been thoroughly debunked by modern research, yet we’re still clinging to a century-old wartime measure as if it were essential infrastructure.
Parents, You Have My Sympathy
For parents, the time change is its own special circle of hell. Ericka Souter, a parenting expert quoted in the ABC piece, recommends gradually shifting kids’ schedules, including meals, naps, and wake times, by 10 to 15 minutes each day leading up to the change. That’s a lovely theory. In practice, try explaining to a three-year-old why dinner is at a different time and why they’re not hungry when they “should” be.
Even with perfect preparation, most children need several days to a full week to adjust, accompanied by the holy trinity of crankiness, clinginess, and changes in appetite. Delightful.
Here in Victoria, we’re in the thick of our own daylight saving period right now, having sprung forward in early October. We won’t fall back until April 2025. The debate here mirrors the American one: do we maintain the twice-yearly time change, make daylight saving time permanent, or revert to standard time year-round?
Queensland and Western Australia don’t observe daylight saving at all, which creates its own timezone comedy during parts of the year. Try coordinating a national meeting when the country’s operating on three different time zones instead of the usual three. It’s brilliant fun.
The real question is: what are we optimising for?
If it’s public health, the medical consensus seems clear: pick a time and stick with it, preferably a standard time that aligns with our natural circadian rhythms. If it’s economic activity or lifestyle preferences, you’ll get a different answer depending on which lobby group you ask.
The Americans have Hawaii and most of Arizona observing daylight saving time entirely, plus five territories. They are getting on just fine without the biannual clock shuffle. Perhaps they’re onto something.
Meanwhile, the rest of us will continue to stumble through a few days of feeling slightly off-kilter twice a year, telling ourselves it’s not that bad while simultaneously feeling absolutely wretched. We’ll adjust our routines, update our devices, and arrive late (or early) to at least one appointment because we forgot which direction the clocks have gone.
And then we’ll do it all again in six months.
Because that’s what we’ve always done, and changing established systems requires political will that seems to be perpetually just over the horizon. So we’ll keep changing our clocks, fighting with our bodies’ internal systems, and pretending this all makes perfect sense.
At least the Americans get their extra hour of sleep this weekend. We’ll get ours in April. Mark your calendars accordingly, if you can figure out what time they say.
