More Daylight, Better Health
Mayer Hillman sees the light in a new BMJ publication
Lack of exercise is a major public health problem in the United Kingdom, contributing to the incidence of chronic illness. Adults are recommended to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous activity daily and children at least an hour. However, surveys have shown a trend towards declining fitness, on the basis of which it has been predicted that more than half the population will be clinically obese by 2050.
Health experts have proposed urgent action to remedy this situation, and the government now aims to get far more of the inactive population walking or gardening regularly or, preferably, taking up more vigorous physical activity, such as sports, aerobics, or cycling (especially as a means of travel). Although most people are aware of the benefits—a lessened risk of coronary heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and some cancers—routine physical activity features in few people’s everyday lives. Only a small proportion of adults are motivated to undertake it throughout the year, and the school curriculum allocates insufficient time for it, he adds.
Research shows that people feel happier, more energetic and have lower sickness rates in the longer and brighter days of summer, whereas their mood tends to decline during the shorter and duller days of winter. Two studies published by the Policy Studies Institute also point to a wide range of advantages of the clock change proposal.
It is surprising therefore that there has been a consistent oversight of the role that increasing the number of ‘accessible’ daylight hours in this way could play in the promotion of physical health and well-being, he says. Taking account of the typical daily patterns of adults and children, the clock change “would considerably increase opportunities for outdoor leisure activities – about 300 additional hours of daylight for adults each year and 200 more for children.”
According to Hillman, there is strong public support for the clock change – “about 4 to 1 in England and Wales and fairly evenly divided in Scotland.”
Adopting the clock change proposal “is an effective, practical and remarkably easily managed way of achieving a better alignment of our waking hours with the available daylight during the year,” he argues. “It must be rare to find a means of vastly improving the health and well-being of nearly everyone in the population – and at no cost. Here we have it. All it requires is a majority of MPs walking through the ‘Ayes’ lobby in the House of Commons,” he concludes
So tell us do you think we should get rid of daylight saving time?Would you be encouraged to spend more time outdoors if we did?
Source:BMJ 2010; 341:c5964 doi: 10.1136/bmj.c5964 (Published 27 October 2010)
Cite this as: BMJ 2010; 341:c5964
