{"id":27995,"date":"2026-03-18T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=27995"},"modified":"2026-03-12T14:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T21:55:39","slug":"camosun-instructor-warns-against-permanent-daylight-saving-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2026\/03\/18\/camosun-instructor-warns-against-permanent-daylight-saving-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun instructor warns against permanent daylight saving time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday, March 8 marked the final time we in BC have to \u201cspring ahead\u201d and lose an hour of sleep as we enter daylight saving time (DST). The provincial government has passed legislation that BC will permanently stay in DST going forward. While it might look nice on the surface to no longer adjust the clocks every six months, Camosun Psychology instructor Michael Pollock warns that this change could have far more negative consequences than the government may have considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time sleep researchers said they don\u2019t like [the transition], and particularly the one [to DST]. Spring ahead, so that means we lose an hour of sleep and that leads to impairments and sleep deprivation the next day,\u201d says Pollock. \u201cWith the legislation that just passed with daylight savings all year round, our alarm clocks will be telling us to be waking up an hour earlier in the dark so we won\u2019t get sunlight until an hour later. Essentially, we\u2019ll be going to school in the dark, and to work, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Camosun\u2019s Michael Pollock disagrees with having permanent daylight saving time (photo by Jasmine Wagstaff\/Nexus<\/em>).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pollock argues that this change will affect everyone\u2019s circadian rhythms, the biological clock that keeps us waking up and falling asleep around the same time every day. Morning sunlight is crucial for keeping this balanced, and winter mornings staying dark an hour longer will change those rhythms for the worse, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally our clocks stay in sync with the outside world because of light,\u201d says Pollock. \u201cLight is the main thing that keeps the rhythms in check so it doesn\u2019t delay every day. And it\u2019s morning sun, it\u2019s not all the [sunlight].\u201d<\/p>\n

Pollock says that losing that hour of sunlight can throw the circadian rhythm out of sync and lead to poorer performance in work and school since a person\u2019s internal clock may no longer align with the one outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be really tough, and [many people] already have a hard time waking up in the morning and concentrating and now its going to be even harder,\u201d he says. \u201cThey\u2019ll be in this social jet lag, a kind of brain fog where your brain is out of sync with the outside world\u2019s clocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pollock says that younger people in particular will be hit hard as their natural circadian rhythms encourage them to stay up late and sleep in, which will make getting up in time for work or school far more difficult than it is now.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, I\u2019m expecting that the students will be most affected, since at that young age your brain is already driving you to be night owls biologically,\u201d he says. \u201cYour brain wants you to stay up late and sleep in. They already have a hard time waking up for those 8:30 classes, and next winter if this legislation stays in place, it\u2019s going to be so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most sleep experts agree that if the government wants to switch to a permanent time they should pick standard time instead of DST.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been the longstanding opinion of sleep researchers and so they\u2019ve been wanting to get rid of the transition for that reason, but the bigger issue is what we switch to,\u201d says Pollock. \u201c[What] sleep researchers, my colleagues, and I have been saying for a long time is we should switch to the original standard time all year round. Instead, the government has released that they\u2019re going to go with permanent daylight savings time, and that was only meant for the summertime, when the days are longer. It was never meant or designed for the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday, March 8 marked the final time we in BC have to \u201cspring ahead\u201d and lose an hour of sleep as we enter daylight saving time (DST). The provincial government has passed legislation that BC will permanently stay in DST going forward. While it might look nice on the surface to no longer adjust the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27996,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[351,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-march-18-2026","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28024,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27995\/revisions\/28024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}