Are you planning to change your clocks tonight? You obey the nanny state, time expert claims

When you stand on your chair to move your clocks forward an hour this weekend, you are in “nanny state,” according to a time expert.

When we switch to daylight saving time, we let the government tell us “when we go to bed,” says David Rooney, former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

In a speech hosted by the Royal Institute of Navigation last week, EdinburghRooney said the watch is being used by the state as a tool of “moral discipline”.

The watchmaker, that is, a specialist in measuring time, told the audience: “In summer I get up and go to bed an hour earlier than in winter.

— I don’t really want to, but we change watches twice a year, and here’s why. One Edwardian moralist wanted us to live better.

When you stand on your chair this weekend to set your clocks forward an hour, you are in

When you stand on your chair this weekend to set your clocks forward an hour, you are in “baby-sitter state,” according to a time expert.

Speaking to the Mail afterwards, he said: “The current arrangement, where the clock advances every year, means that the government sets our bedtimes and forces us to get up an hour earlier.”

When do the hours change?

In the UK, clocks are set forward 1 hour at 01:00 am on the last Sunday in March and back 1 hour at 2:00 am on the last Sunday in October.

The period when the clock is 1 hour behind is called British Summer Time (BST).

There is more daylight in the evening and less in the morning (sometimes called Daylight Savings Time).

When the clock returns, the UK is on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

Source: gov.uk

“I’m not usually the type to talk about the babysitter state, but when we actually have to go to bed earlier in the summer, dictated by the government, it’s like a babysitter state – it seems a little strange these days.”

The Edwardian moralist cited by the pundit and historian is William Willett, a builder and great-great-grandfather of Coldplay vocalist Chris Martin, who led the DST campaign.

In his book On Time: A History of Civilization at Twelve Hours, Rooney claims that Willett, who began promoting the idea in 1907, used clocks to try to “cure” the problem of “working-class idleness” by having them get up earlier in order to it is better to use summer daylight.

At that time, graffiti was left on one of the streets of London, in which the day when the clock went forward was called “All Fools’ Day” and said: “Get up an hour earlier and fool yourself that you did not.”

Rooney said: “The clock has been a tool of moral control for centuries, from being used to stop people from drinking alcohol by setting licensing hours, to Greenwich Mean Time being used to ensure more reasonable working hours in Victorian factories.

“People agreed with DST because it had powerful supporters like Arthur Conan Doyle and Winston Churchill.

When we switch to daylight saving time, we let the government tell us

When we switch to daylight saving time, we let the government tell us “when we go to bed,” says David Rooney, former curator of timekeeping at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

“But UK daylight patterns vary so it doesn’t make sense for us all to be an hour ahead of the pace as London requires.”

It is no longer possible for British cities to have their own local time zone, as it was before the expansion of the railways made it necessary to use Greenwich Mean Time throughout the country from the mid-19th century onwards.

In his book On Time: A History of Civilization at Twelve Hours, Rooney claims that Willett, who began promoting the idea in 1907, used clocks to try to

In his book On Time: A History of Civilization at Twelve Hours, Rooney claims that Willett, who began promoting the idea in 1907, used clocks to try to “cure” the problem of “working-class idleness” by having them get up earlier in order to it is better to use summer daylight

But Rooney suggests that local areas should be able to set their own working and school hours from early spring to reflect the fact that daylight is different in different parts of the country.

He said: “Of course, it would be wiser not to change hours, but to change working hours from 9 to 5 in the summer, if people want it.”

“The work schedule can be set locally rather than in London.”

The idea of ​​daylight saving time was first mentioned by US statesman and scientist Benjamin Franklin in 1784, and has been used in the UK since 1916.

Supporters say brighter summer evenings save energy, reduce traffic accidents and get people out of the house to be more active.

Some feel that we should return to permanent DST, as during the Second World War, when clocks were moved forward two hours in the summer, but critics point out that in the far north-west of Scotland the sun did not rise until around 10 am. .

Rooney said: “With more people working from home and working less traditional shift schedules and 9 to 5 is less common, daylight savings time to give them more light after work doesn’t make as much sense anymore.”

Can time changes ruin your health?

According to sleep researcher Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, time changes the sleep schedule.

Researchers at the University of Padua in Italy and the University of Surrey have also found that daylight saving time (DST) disrupts our sleep-wake cycle.

Research shows that chronic sleep deprivation can increase levels of stress hormones that increase heart rate and blood pressure, as well as chemicals that cause inflammation.

Heart attacks are generally more common in the morning, but the frequency of incidents increases slightly on Mondays after the clock changes in the spring, when people usually get up an hour earlier than usual.

Numerous studies have also linked daylight saving time in the spring to a brief spike in car accidents and poor performance on vigilance tests, likely due to sleep loss.

The study includes a German study that found an increase in road fatalities a week after DST, but not in autumn.