This Saturday, April 1, at midnight, we will have to put the clock back one hour to winter time. The time change allows for brighter morning hours, which can be of use to our body after the adjustment process. But experts from the University of Chile warn that the high cost of these variations in the country is significant and the impact on people’s health. For the same reason they suggest a schedule to stay that we will begin to live in a few more days.
The entire national territory, with the exception of the Region of Magellan, must turn back the clock at one hour at midnight this Saturday, April 1, to the beginning of winter, a measure that seeks the advantage of the sun from the moment of awakening. Does this gap have an impact on our body and the country? Is he afraid that the season changes twice a year? Researchers from the University of Chile recommend a fixed schedule and give advice to better adapt to this change.
The new schedule will be in force in six months, until the first week of September 2023, according to information given by the Ministry of Energy, the entity in charge of this dynamic that can cause sleep disturbances, drowsiness and lack of attention. a few days However, after this adjustment period, a new schedule will be beneficial to our body. According to the artists, the winter hours allow us to have morning light and help to shape our biological rhythms and therefore regulate various hormonal and physiological cycles.
Professor Margarita Bórquez, an academic from the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Social Sciences (FACSO) of the University of Chile, says that it would be ideal to remain one winter schedule, which will begin this weekend. “At this time, the change should not cause damage to our body, since it is more consistent with our physiological needs. Sunrise and sunset are important to regulate sleep. When we change from summer time to winter time, what will happen now seems to be in better agreement with our watches, that is, we will have more light in the morning and that is very useful for daily synchronization”, he explains.
This involves the synchronization of hormones, effects on the mind, for attention, for sleep, in all our daily activities. Hence the change of time may be beneficial to the population. But any disturbance in these sleeping habits that we must maintain every day can cause imbalances in the hormonal level, in the mood level, and in the sleepiness level. Accommodation is given for four or five days.
“However, I would like to emphasize that at this time the impact on people is much less than in the spring. The previous change (from winter to summer) has many problems connected with the health and respect of people. An increase in heart rate has been reported in studies on a reciprocal basis; it also increases in accidents, and greater sleepiness, and a greater effect on the way; in the metabolic system. It is a change that does not benefit our body,” the psychologist affirms.
Is it justified to have two time changes per year?
“Of course, it is not justified. If we look at the literature on the available evidence, there is no evidence that relates to economic support or health variables that tell us it is necessary to make two seasonal changes. In fact, in many parts of the world there are no seasonal changes. Before the pandemic, the European Union was already thinking about eliminating seasonal changes precisely because of the evidence that seasonal changes have a detrimental effect on people’s health,” says Bórquez.
In Chile there was a proposal to keep one card, which is based on all the available evidence, says the academic. “But the question of saving the day and time, and that being something which, not only, as my opinion bears, but also with the evidence available to us, is not expedient, is not the most appropriate thing to undertake,” he warns; . For example, it is worth noting that the summer season of 2015 has been maintained throughout the year, and this has had quite large repercussions in society, especially in children, adolescents and older adults. As he himself indicates, that year there were many problems because the boys and girls arrived at the school very sleepy.
“The population that suffers the most is children and young people, especially because they need more hours of sleep and therefore synchronization with light dark cycles, with more light in the morning, is more beneficial for this population. Therefore, the effect is much more noticeable. Therefore, based on the evidence, there are no resources to maintain vicissitudes, neither from the biological side, nor even less from the economic side”, says the mental specialist.
Sometimes these changes are proposed on the economic basis of saving energy, but the evidence – not only in Chile, but also in the rest of the world – indicates that the time change does not have an energy cost. For these and other reasons, a group of parliamentarians asked the President to remove the second change and keep one for the winter. “We hope that in the not too distant future we will be able to maintain a winter schedule throughout the year and adapt to our time zone that corresponds to us due to our local location, and this will obviously have repercussions on the health of all Chileans,” said Bórquez. .
In this sense, a researcher from the Center for Public Systems (CSP) Department of Industrial Engineering of the U. de Chile, Alejandro Barros, agrees that a definitive decision with arguments and arguments is necessary. “Quite a time change. It worked reasonably well until we started playing with the time. Historically, on the second Saturday in March and on the second Saturday in October, everything ran pretty steady. But what it did now is a super erratic issue, no one knows when the time will change. , although the time was and the decision was, it was never fulfilled.
“No one will put into the equation how much it costs the country to change over time. And if the decision finally changes it, let it be with all the perspective of things: what are the ideal amount of benefits and how many costs, even the ideal amount. And that never happens, and it’s a lot of money. I did a very minute calculation, because there are numbers I couldn’t get, but it’s 25 million. “Why do we talk about productivity losses because we spend a lot of time missing meetings or work commitments,” says Professor Barros.
Another thing that has not yet been done, and that the 2018 decision is being proposed, has been seriously discussed, which is the best way to have two zones, one for winter and the other for summer, or not. that And in case of not having it, which is better, in the winter time or in the summer time. Europe has decided on one summer, although in Chile, that is one winter, which is close to astronomical time.
“Well, the 2018 decree said that we would give ourselves four years to decide, the time of the past and the day, the hour, etc. I do not deny that we change, but we do it by serious negotiation. “The problem is that the change of time is the change of time,” says the professor. “Well, another thing that is foreign to us is that Chile has decided to define according to parallel schedules when the rest of the world does it through the meridians.”
Recommendation: Sleep Hygiene
Because of the change in time, it is necessary to maintain certain sleep habits, always go to bed and get up at the same time, and pay attention to the health care of sleep, which help to withstand the impact. “Yes, it’s good, since it’s one hour less, if we’re on the schedule we have today, we’re used to sleeping. If we go to bed at 11 in the afternoon, it means that now it will be 10, and that would be very useful if we were sleeping at 10. It would be ideal”, says the psychologist.
The artist recommends preparing for the changes, that is, adjusting the eating and sleeping schedules, to follow that change. They also have a lighter diet almost from time to time, do not consume caffeine, and do not leave only in the first hours of the day. Other recommendations include the bed as a place to sleep with a certain habit associated with sleep and not other activities, and from light to bedtime, such as the brightness of cell phones and television screens, which negatively affect the onset of sleep. dream.
“Just as we need light in the dawn, which we will have now in changing time, we do not need light at the beginning of sleep, because when there is light, the hormones are more difficult to solve. For example, melatonin, which is associated with our sleep process, darkness to the correct release misses”, says the professor from the U. of Chile.
In this sense, we can mitigate the change of time by following the sleep hygiene recommendations, highlighting that this change of time is beneficial to our body, because it does not put us in a brighter awakening that will make our body synchronize. so during the day he fell into the following sleep.
