Following an online consultation which has been unusually successful for this type of investigation, the European Commission wants to put an end to winter time.
Brussels is preparing to propose the disappearance of the time change and wants to keep summer time in all the countries of the European Union. This time change, which has occurred twice a year since 1975, has given rise to recurring controversy over the physiological disturbances it would cause.
Based on the result of an online consultation conducted during the summer, Jean-Claude Junker, President of the European Commission, wants to abolish this practice put in place to allow energy savings after the 1973 oil shock. -1974. Finally, a consensual subject!
The stress of the time change
Twice a year, at the time of the change from winter time to summer time and vice versa, we hear the same complaints: “We are tired … This time change is killing us … children have a hard time … ”. For others, nothing to report, we are recovering very well!
The President of the European Commission wishes to close the debate by proposing to maintain summer time all year round in EU countries. Jean-Claude Junker is based on the results of an online consultation in which 4.6 million Europeans participated during the summer and who are 80% in favor of the abolition of the time change.
Psychological or real stress?
This time change, a simple detail in terms of health? Not so sure. If many doctors consider that the only problem is “in the head”, chronobiology shows that our internal clock is a tool a little more sophisticated and more fragile than one thinks.
And studies suggest that this change of time, because we live under the rhythm of this internal clock which does not like these biannual disturbances, would be even more disturbing than the jet lag of transcontinental travel, well known to frequent travelers. .
A disturbance of the internal clock
“The time change disrupts our internal clock which controls our different biological rhythms. These rhythms correspond to the periodic variations of a physiological function. Blood pressure, heart rate, body temperature, sleep-wake cycles and even mood and attention vary throughout the day. “Disrupting the biological clock can therefore have various repercussions on the body”, underlined Véronique Fabre, researcher at the Neurosciences Paris Seine-IBPS laboratory (Sorbonne University / CNRS / Inserm) and member of the research group on sleep, in a interview published in March 2018 on the Sorbonne University website.
We change the clock twice a year …
And the consequences would not be the same depending on whether we switch from summer time to winter time or vice versa. The worst change would be the switch to summer time. Because it deprives us of an hour of sleep, unlike the other which adds one more.
Only one study, Swedish, says that there would be an increase in heart attacks in the three days following this period compared to 5% less during the change to winter time… There is, it seems- there, no similar studies in our country, even if many doctors note, each year, an increase in the consumption of sleeping pills and tranquilizers in the fifteen days which follow.
Daylight saving advocates say it happens to everyone to go to bed an hour later, to sleep an hour less than usual, every now and then, with no consequences whatsoever.
The “early birds” or the “early risers” do not cope well
It is, however, different! These changes in habit are very occasional. The next day we resume our habits. When the time changes, this is repeated every day and it takes time to assimilate this new rhythm. Strangely enough, these are the “early birds” or “early risers”, regulated like music paper which does not support it well… They are however lucky to have a well regulated internal clock.
A word of advice: especially no medication
For a week before the change to summer time, it is therefore recommended to avoid physical exercise and stimulants after 3 pm… and especially to go to bed as soon as the urge to sleep occurs.
For children, the good advice is to postpone bedtime by half an hour each day before the time change. For everyone, it is especially important to manage this gap without resorting to drugs!
Until the proposal to live all year round in summer time is adopted. This supposes a decision of the European Parliament (the Euro-deputies have already declared themselves in favor in February 2018) … and of each of the states of the EU.
.
