It's that time of year where some of us change our clocks back and forth of springing forward
and falling back.
But there's no great scientific reason why daylight Saving Time, also known as summertime,
exists.
You'd think if we were all very inconvenienced twice a year, there would be a good reason
for it.
But there's not.
And polls show that six in ten people want to stop changing the clocks altogether.
So earlier this year in the U.S., the Sunshine Protection Act was passed by the Senate to
stay on daylight saving time year round.
In the U.K., similar things have been proposed by politicians, but they haven't been passed
into law.
So you might think this is good, right?
We all get an extra hour of sunshine in the evening, an extra hour of daylight after work.
But it's not the change that would be detrimental to our health.
And scientists and doctors passionately oppose it.
They oppose daylight saving time in general.
And also and very passionately, the switch to permanent daylight time.
So what on earth is going on?
How does daylight saving time ruin our health?
Exactly.
And how does this affect you?
The origin of Daylight Saving Time is rife with myths, and the actual changing of the
clocks back and forth isn't the real problem.
The problem is being on daylight or summertime in the first place.
It leads to a lot of lost sleep.
And as you might know, as well as being a YouTuber, I'm actually a sleep researcher.
So I want to share with you the story of daylight, sleep and capitalism.
This video is brought to you by my delightful patrons.
Support me on Patreon and join our procrastination club on Discord with the links in the description.
First of all, why do we even have daylight saving?
So it's a pretty common myth that it was introduced for and by farmers.
They lobby against it in pretty much every country around the world because among other
reasons, it upsets the cows.
Daylight Saving Time was originally proposed by a Kiwi entomologist who wanted more time
or more light to collect insects after work and another British guy who loved to golf.
So Daylight Saving Time was first introduced in Europe and the US during World War One
to conserve light and energy in the evening to kind of save on energy expenditure year
round.
The Germans did it first and then everyone else followed.
Since then it was abandoned and then readopted and has been pretty much a permanent thing
since the 1970s.
But there is no good evidence that later daylight actually saves energy.
People just use more heat in the mornings.
They drive more when it's lighter later in the day and long gone are the days when we're
trying to conserve energy by turning lights off in the evening when we're all just blasting
air conditioning all the time.
It's so bad for the environment, but how good is air con?
So there is no true benefit of daylight saving or summertime other than, hey, maybe it's
fun to do things after work, or it's kind of good for our mood and social life if it's
lighter later in the day.
So considering these kinds of vague reasons, it's surprising that Daylight Saving Time
still exists.
It is a complete confusing mess.
It is a patchwork all around the world, and the chaos of daylight saving is best illustrated
in none other than Australia.
On Australia, as we call it, is a pretty big country that goes from a logical breakdown of time
zones to a confusing, chaotic mess because on Daylight Saving Time, it moves to have
16 individual time zones and because some states adopt it, but then some states and
territories don't.
Individual time zones are split in two.
Many people have pointed out that this is completely unhinged and Australia needs a
time zone intervention.
A lot of us think that the main problem with daylight saving time is switching the clocks
back and forth twice a year.
And yes, that is a legit thing.
The transition to daylight time in the spring increases fatal traffic accidents in the morning
and workplace injuries and heart attacks.
But that's not the main problem.
The main problem is living in an artificial time that is mismatched with our natural circadian
rhythms and the sun.
I'm pointing at the window.
That is the sun.
The main problem with Daylight Time is that it screws up our body clocks inside our brain.
So we have an inner clock.
It's a brain structure that I talk about a lot called the SCN.
And then every cell in our body has an inner circadian clock that are all in sync with
our master clock in our brain, with the AC and these clocks that regulate everything
from your alertness to your body temperature and blood pressure and even hormone levels.
And they are constantly trying to synchronize with the environment.
I keep pointing to the window that you can't see because they're trying to synchronize
with light, because we all evolved on this fun planet that has a 24 hour light, dark
cycle.
If you have or you're exposed to morning light.
you synchronize best with the day and your body clock is ticking away in a fashion
that helps you fall asleep at a reasonable time in the evening.
But if you add an artificial clock to that, like daylight saving or summer time, your
body clock shifts later and you fall asleep later.
You can see how this happens in this awesome Guardian data visualization of how much daylight
shifts into the late evening during daylight saving.
So the obvious problem is lost sleep during the daylight saving time.
But that lost sleep has flow on effects that a lot of us might not realize or even think
about, because it affects all of those things that I mentioned earlier, like your hormones.
Experimental studies have shown us that losing sleep actually decreases levels of hormones
that make us fall, increases other hormones that regulate appetite, and makes us more
likely to eat high calorie foods.
Which kind of explains why you eat like a T-Rex when you're jetlagged.
And over time, this can be really bad! Lost sleep can impact your heart health as well
as your mood and well-being.
And even though a lot of us don't want to admit it, standard time best matches our body's
internal clock.
As the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has said, the daily cycle of natural light
and darkness is the most powerful timing cue to synchronize our bodies internal clock.
When we receive more light in the morning and darkness in the evening
our bodies and nature are better aligned, making it easier to wake up for our daily
activities and easier to fall asleep at night.
Which is basically what I just said.
So why then, after all of this, would a country choose to have daylight time year round?
Back in March, the United States started the process of passing the Sunshine Protection
Act, which, to be honest, sounds like the most American culture wars name for an act like
you don't need to protect sunshine.
It's always there.
One scientist actually suggested that they call it the Darkness Protection Act.
What a burn. Anyway,
the Sunshine Protection Act could make Daylight Saving Time permanent across the country from
late 2023 if it is passed by the House of Representatives and then signed into law.
And it is easy to look at America from other countries from overseas and say, wow, that's
just America being very America.
That will never happen to me in my country when it very well could.
The main continued reason for daylight saving in general and its maybe permanence in America
is an economic argument.
People would spend three and a half percent more if there was daylight time year-round.
We know that in the months when it's lighter later outside, people spend more money.
We all do more things.
So why not try to carry that economic effect over the winter months when we're normally
in standard time?
Honestly, this whole consumerism angle kind of helps explain why the U.S. is one of the
only countries considering the permanent change for now.
Over time, there have been some unexpected influences that have kept daylight saving
going, as well as lengthening the amount of time that it exists for during the year.
One of them is the candy industry who lobbied to have Halloween included within daylight
saving time to increase the profits of Halloween.
A bit spooky.
There's also the golf industry who in the 1980s pushed for an extra month of daylight
saving time, saying that it would get them an extra $400 million in revenue, which is
an insane number.
But keep in mind that in the US alone, golf generates $84 billion a year.
And this daylight link has run through in the past, in the 1920s.
The Washington Post.
It reported that golf ball sales in 1918, the first year of daylight saving, increased
by 20%.
That's a lot of balls.
Not to mention that we all use more petrol or fuel when it's a lighter later
One lobbying group estimated that U.S. gas stations have added an estimated $1 billion
in annual sales since a month was added to daylight saving in the eighties.
And let's be honest, the reason why all of this is so complicated and why some of us
do support Daylight Saving Time, is that all of these things are fun.
Halloween is fun doing things after work is fun, even if it's collecting insects.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine doesn't recognize that daylight savings.
It's a bit fun, but changing the time and setting an artificial clock for us to just
have a little bit of fun at a huge public health expense is a dangerous precedent.
It also means that people are going to work and school in the dark and that in some places
the sun is rising super late.
And I can't emphasize enough how much scientists oppose this.
Imagine a group of scientists who were really passionately opposing something.
Maybe they're holding up like protest signs or something like that, and keep that image
in your mind because I couldn't find one online to use.
And this probably won't come as a surprise.
But the lawmakers in the U.S. who are pushing hard for these changes come from a state that
would benefit greatly from none other than golf revenue.
And when the golf industry is more influential than scientists and medical professionals,
there's a problem.
Not to mention that the health cost of lost sleep in terms of public health costs and
even productivity would probably be more than this golf revenue.
But it probably just doesn't seem as fun now.
Luckily, not every country is going down this path.
For now, the EU voted to scrap timezone changes and stay on standard time.
Mexico have done the same and Japan, South Korea, China, Singapore and Dubai have scrapped
Daylight Saving Time as well.
But Australia and the UK are two countries that have flip flopped back and forth about
maybe staying on permanent daylight time.
I mean, as we know, Australia is just chaotic and I will also add that if Brain Croft was
a country, you would prefer to stay on standard time.
According to my YouTube poll, 54% of you would prefer to stay on standard time, which makes
me kind of proud supporting the science.
And this is a little nuts, I note, but I was kind of wondering, okay, 605,000 subscribers,
how many poll votes would I need for this poll to be statistically representative of
everyone who subscribes to my YouTube channel?
Did the calculation and it turns out I would need 384 responses.
Got 723 in less than a day smashed it so you could say statistically BrainCraft crossed subscribers
want to stay on standard time.
If you're upset about that, good.
Let me know in the comments.
Overall, daylight saving time is super weird and makes very little sense.
It makes the most sense to have all of our clocks in sync.
Your body clock, the clock, clock and sunlight on standard time.
Changing the clocks and having an artificial clock so people can spend more and do more.
It's just silly when we know it is simply better to do less.
Before you leave, I have a very exciting update, which is that everyone who subscribes to Brain
Craft, everyone who is watching this video, can join the BrainCraft discord.
You can chat about these videos, upcoming videos.
I post lots of video and BrainCraft related stuff kind of in, say, BrianCraft in the
main channel.
If you would like to join the other channels, please support me on Patreon.
I can't talk anymore.
I have so much gratitude for my Patreon supporters.
You have truly kept this channel going over the past few years while I have been doing
science research, which I'll talk about more soon.
In addition to doing this channel, if you are a patron, you can also join the Procrastinators
Club.
All of the links are down in the description.
Thank you.
And have a sunny day.