The real costs of daylight saving time for Canadians

For this week’s No More Ls column, we’re looking at the real cost of daylight savings for Canadians—beyond that one-hour change.

Depending on where you live, daylight saving time (DST) is top of mind this weekend, as many Canadians’ clocks fall back an hour to standard time on Sunday, Nov. 1.

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Others—in B.C., the Prairie provinces, Yukon, Northwest Territories, and northwestern regions of Ontario— won’t be changing their clocks on Nov. 1.

Those who do gain an hour of sleep in the fall also lose an hour in the spring, so it’s all kind of a wash, right? Not so, say the experts. Time change can have big consequences for both the economy and our overall health, leading to a bigger financial impact on Canadians than one might think.

What are the immediate health costs of spring forward, fall back?

“Due to that abrupt change in the clock, everybody feels tired for a few weeks,” says Michael Antle, head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary. “You’re actually living on the wrong time. You’re getting up too early for your body for a number of weeks and there’s costs that go along with that.”

A Quebec study showed that for 30 days after the fall time change, the risk of evening car crashes increases by about 25%; a Colorado study showed the risk of fatal motor vehicle accidents increases by 6% in the work week after the spring change. Car accidents are not only emotionally and physically devastating; they cost Canadians between $36 and $60 billion each year.

Workplace safety is also impacted.

On the first “Sleepy Monday” after the spring time change, studies found a 5.7% increase in occupational injuries and 67.6% more missed workdays because of accidents. A 2008 study found the total direct annual costs of occupational injuries and fatalities to the Canadian economy was approximately $9.7 billion (adjusted for inflation, that’s over $14 billion today).

There’s also a marked increase in heart attacks and strokes in the days following the time change in the spring. According to the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, the economic burden of cardiovascular disease nationwide is already $21.2 billion, while strokes cost the Canadian economy $3.6 billion.

In susceptible populations, the time change is hard on mental health too. A large Danish study found diagnoses of depression rose after the fall return to standard time, and researchers say people with existing mood disorders are especially vulnerable around either change. Canada’s current mental health crisis is costing the economy $180 billion each year.

What about the long-term health costs of daylight saving time?

This twice-yearly time change is linked to many chronic diseases, leading experts to determine that living on the wrong time zone can be detrimental to your health.

“It adds a little bit of extra stress to your body,” says Antle. “What you’ve got is probably a few extra prescriptions, a few extra emergency room visits, a couple extra days in the hospital, increasing your dose of insulin if you’re a diabetic. So, it’s a gradual erosion of your health.”

Some studies link these kinds of circadian disruptions (associated with things like shift work and jet lag) to longer-term issues, like a shorter sleep, metabolic disease and even cancer risk.

The total cost of insufficient sleep duration in Canada in 2020 has been estimated at $502 million, largely attributed to two of the most expensive chronic diseases, with depression costing $219 million and type 2 diabetes ringing in at $92 million.

What are the social and economic effects of daylight saving?

A disruption to your circadian rhythm can lead to things such as headaches, fatigue and loss of attention, and can ultimately affect productivity. That all can impact everyone from students to working-age Canadians and beyond.

“When your work and school schedule is misaligned with the day-night cycle,” Antle says, it produces what he describes as “social jet lag.” That means there’s a mismatch between what your body clock wants to do and what society’s clock wants you to do.

“When you lose an hour of sleep, you perform less well cognitively across a range of things,” says Patrick Baylis, associate professor of economics at the University of British Columbia who recently co-authored an analysis of the health impacts of permanent daylight savings being adopted by many provinces.

“The fundamental cause is still, we think, the loss of sleep, but it’s just manifesting in different ways. So, one kind of building block of that is if you see that students are doing less well in exams. That, by implication, means that people are probably not doing as well at their jobs, and that actually shows up in aggregate economic data,” he says.

DST may also impact the financial markets. Data shows that average returns for stock indices tend to be lower on Mondays—the “weekend effect”— especially after both the spring and fall time change. Researchers found that the spring switch, for example, increased the Monday dip in stock returns by 200% to 500%.

In the United States alone, the average one-day loss on stock markets after the DST change has been calculated at more than $30 billion. When it comes to consumer spending, its impact isn’t as clear. Some studies show a small uptick in spending in the spring, followed by a downturn in the fall back.

What about saving energy costs, which was one of the main reasons for the adoption of DST during the First World War?

Savings are not consistent across Canada. Some provinces, such as in Ontario, see reduced energy consumption during DST, whereas energy consumption increases in Alberta. (Here's what to do if you overpay your utility bill.)

The discrepancy can be attributed to changing heating and cooling needs, depending on the time of year, explains Antle.

So what can you do to save money and daylight?

If your clocks are changing, health experts recommend taking advantage of the weekend—if your work and family life will let you! Get on the new schedule a few days sooner, limit caffeine intake, exercise earlier in the day, and avoid eating late at night. Hmm. Skipping late-night snacks can save you some coin, too.

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. Should you ask Meta’s Muse to help manage your money?
2. Where are the fallback and bridge jobs in Canada?!
3. Money coach Gina Judge on how to conquer a scarcity mindset
4. Is cash still king? The pros and cons of fiat currency