On Sunday, October 4, the clock once again turned forward, upsetting the natural rhythm of the bodies of young and old.
This year, the year of the Coronavirus, offered us all a chance to return to what is important – our families and our homes. It was also a chance to return to the seasons as nature intended, the time of the sunrise and the sunset unaltered.
More and more, people around the world are waking up to the fact that daylight saving is causing us problems. These are not just the problems of different time zones dividing borders, but real impacts on our health and wellbeing.
This year, Monash University’s Professor Paul Zimmet said daylight saving had worrying health implications, with more heart attacks, road accidents and an increase in a number of other health issues in the days just after daylight saving is introduced.
Professor Zammit said all these problems would only be magnified during the year of the Coronavirus.
The EU Parliament has voted to end mandatory daylight saving by 2021.
A pulmonologist and sleep physician at the Mayo Clinic Health System in Wisconsin has said studies show there is a 5-15 per cent increased risk of having a heart attack in the days after shifting to daylight saving, and an increased chance of stroke.
I am among those who have been fighting daylight saving for more than 25 years. It has saddened me to see children having to get up in the dark to go to school, farmers battling a change in the natural order of things, and mothers trying to get their young children to go to bed in the daylight. Personally, I am among those who suffer physically due to daylight saving, with panic attacks, weight loss and exhaustion. NSW has been fighting solidly against this for nearly 50 years. There is no need for daylight saving. Please NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard, have some compassion and end it.
Mrs Judith Law, Gunnedah
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