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By Rodrigo Santos Andrade
How permanent daylight saving time could affect schools
visibility comment0 event October 28, 2026 timer 13:28
Risks for negative outcomes may be reduced through mitigation measures such as public education on sleep health and later or flexible start times.
Sleep is fundamental to well-being. Decisions to end bi-annual clock changes and remain on permanent daylight saving time (DST) in British Columbia, the North West Territories, Alberta, Manitoba and northwestern Ontario have consequences for many Canadians due to potential sleep disruption.
The health risks of transitioning to DST, including increased heart attacks and fatal car accidents, have led most sleep and chronobiology experts, including the first author of this story, to advocate for ending seasonal clock changes in favour of permanent standard time.
Governments justify opting for DST to provide later daylight for a range of reasons, including facilitating evening activites, alignment with other areas and promoting health.
While permanent DST provides more daylight in the evening hours — something sometimes appealing for those with flexible schedules and access to outdoor spaces — it comes at the cost of later sunrises.
Being aware of the potential effects of permanent DST and how to mitigate these will be important for schools.
Read more:
B.C.’s switch to permanent DST adds to the ‘perfect storm’ for poorer adolescent sleep and mental health
Later dawns
Due to the short winter days experienced in Canada, dawn will now occur later than the start times for many schools in many of the regions opting for permanent DST.
Communities to the north and west within a time zone will have sunrises later than 8 a.m., or even later than 9 a.m. for a sizeable portion of the school year. Grande Prairie, Alta., will see sunrises in December and January after 10 a.m.
In the United States, the the Sunshine Protection Act seeks to make daylight saving time permanent.
Because winter days are shorter in Canadian northern areas than the more southern United States, the negative consequences of the move to permanent DST will be more profound for Canadians.
Why time matters
A major concern around choosing the right clock for society has to do with our body’s internal circadian clock. This circadian clock regulates our daily 24-hour rhythms, including our sleep-wake cycles. This clock naturally follows daylight, so as our days get shifted later with DST, our body rhythms also get shifted later.
One challenge that many people will face with permanent DST is social jetlag — a mismatch between what our body clock wants to do (follow the sun) and what our school or work schedules expect us to do (follow our alarm clocks).
DST worsens social jetlag in two ways. First, DST moves our social schedule an hour earlier relative to dawn. For people with earlier schedules, such as students and teachers, this means waking earlier than our bodies want with the later dawns during fall and winter. Second, later sunsets delay when our bodies want to fall asleep, leading to less sleep overall.
Social jetlag also erodes health in several ways, raising rates of depression, cardiovascular disease and metabolic diseases. How a person will respond to permanent DST depends on both their work or school schedule and their chronotype. Those with flexible schedules can adapt their sleep and activity schedules, but this isn’t a luxury afforded to many.
Some people are naturally more morning-types (“larks”), while others are naturally more evening types (“owls”). The people who will struggle the most with permanent DST’s late winter dawns are the owls who have early work and school times. This is especially true for teens: Many of the biological changes occurring during adolescence naturally shift the circadian clock later, so teens are much more likely to fall into the “owl” category.
Well-being in education and start times
As dawn gets later than school start times, communities and families will likely face many challenges. Research from Russia’s short-lived permanent DST suggests detriments for sleep, social jetlag and mood, especially winter depression.
Compared to research on the risks associated with DST transitions, there are relatively few studies on permanent DST. Instead, we can look to research on sleep, school start times and student well-being.
Teens are considered chronically sleep-deprived because of the mismatch between their circadian rhythms and most school start times. This poses several public-health concerns related to the consequences of sleep loss for daytime sleepiness, attention and executive functioning.
Teens’ sleep deficiency is associated with increased engagement in risky behaviours such as alcohol, drug and tobacco use, caffeine use and increased risk for depression, low grades and car accidents. The greater the circadian misalignment, the more likely adolescents are to experience cognitive and school difficulties. This is especially true for teens with ADHD or other health needs associated with sleep challenges.
Decades of research points to later school start times being better aligned with adolescents’ circadian rhythms, with benefits for sleep health, mood, attendance, attention and academic performance.
It also points to later start times being associated with decreased rates of illness, headaches and mental-health difficulties, including depression and disordered eating. Researchers have also documented improved sense of well-being, reduced caffeine use and reduced risk of motor vehicle accidents.
The extensive benefits associated with better alignment of school times with students’ circadian rhythms have led researchers to suggest that later start times could help reduce educational disparities.
And it’s not just students who benefit from later start times. Teachers also experience better daytime functioning and sleep health.
Mitigation measures
Taken together, as sunrise, school start times and students’ biological rhythms become more out of synch, educators can expect more disruptions to students’ engagement and academics. They could also see increased rates of illness (on top of existing seasonal increases) and absences, especially for middle and high schoolers.
This is especially concerning given mounting concerns for under-resourced educational systems and unmet classroom needs that leave teachers ill-equipped.
Consequences may be greater in rural and remote communities, where school start times tend to be earlier, as in British Columbia.
Likewise, social jetlag and associated health consequences tend to be more pronounced in racialized and economically marginalized communities where many people already have earlier start times, less flexibility in schedules, reliance on public transit and high rates of disability and health problems. This brings up important concerns for equity-deserving groups likely to experience greater academic, social and economic detriments associated with permanent DST.
As governments enact permanent DST, evaluation related to well-being and safety will be crucial for informing policy and practice.
Risks for negative outcomes may also be reduced through various mitigation measures such as public education on sleep health and seasonal mood changes, later or flexible start times, adapting indoor lighting in schools and traffic and pedestrian safety measures.
Michael Antle receives funding from NSERC. Amanda L. Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Tags: Academic Journalism, The Conversation, The Conversation Academic News
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