Doctors: People’s health would vastly improve if clocks didn’t go back

THE health and well-being of people would “vastly” improve if the clocks did not go back this weekend, doctors have said.

Not putting the clocks back on Sunday morning but still putting them forward in the spring would increase daylight hours and encourage more outdoor activity, a report in the British Medical Journal suggests.

Many chronic illnesses are caused by a lack of physical activity and extending the hours of daylight would lead to an increased opportunity for outdoor leisure activities and more exercise, said Dr Mayer Hillman, senior fellow emeritus at the Policy Studies Institute.

He said an extra hour of light in the evening would benefit children — a number of whom are not allowed to leave their homes after dark — because they will be able to engage in outdoor activities for longer.

In addition, elderly people who do not go out in the dark for fear of assault and poorer vision and hearing would have more time to take part in leisure activities.

Dr Hillman said research showed people felt happier, more energetic and had lower sickness rates in the longer and brighter days of summer compared to the shorter days of winter.

“Adopting this proposal for a clock change is an effective, practical, and remarkably easily managed way to better align our waking hours with the available daylight during the year,” he said.

He said it must be rare to find a means of improving the health and well-being of whole populations that only required a simple government decision.

According to Hillman, there is strong public support for the clock change.

British campaign group Lighter Later argue that changing the clocks to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) +1 in winter and GMT +2 in summer would have a wide-reaching impact.

Thousands of jobs could be created in the tourist industry, as longer evenings would extend the tourist season, said campaigners.

Dozens of road deaths could be also be prevented as well as big savings in CO2 pollution as people would be switching lights on later, said campaigners.