Scientists warn of abandoned winter time: "A huge experiment with our health"

The clock is squeezing for winter time. The EU Commission wants to completely eliminate the time shift and in Sweden the government has cautiously opposed the proposal. The issue is currently being investigated by the State Office, which will present its results on November 22.

At the beginning of December, ministers from EU member states will meet to decide whether to abolish the rescheduling and the EU Commission's hope is that the change will start to apply as early as next year.

Many countries in Europe (as well as the European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker) want eternal summer time. Finland and Denmark prefer normal time (winter time in the population) but in Sweden the picture looks different. Here, several studies have shown that a majority wants summer time all year.

But according to Arne Lowden, a researcher focusing on sleep and light at the Stress Research Institute in Stockholm, it can be a health hazard to skip the winter time and the extra hour with the morning sun.

- It would be a huge experiment with our health. You cannot ask politicians and ordinary people to know what happens if we do not keep winter time because it is not tried. However, we have tried summer time during the half year. There are benefits to it, but what you don't know are the much more serious disadvantages that it brings, he says and continues:

- This has not been taken into account in the debate, I have not seen anyone say it.

Arne Lowden hopes that the State Treasury's investigation will go to referral agencies that can reflect the negative health effects that the time shift brings.

- In the autumn and winter, problems such as sleep problems, fatigue and depression are increasing. All this can be fixed with morning light, it is a widely accepted treatment for depression. In addition, we get 80 percent of our annual solar energy during spring and summer so those who claim they need more light in the spring are out cycling.

It is rather in the spring, when we switch to summer time, that health can be affected.

- There are studies that have seen effects on accidents and increased stress in cardiac patients.

Christian Benedict, sleep scientist at Uppsala University, also advocates permanent winter time. He writes that in an email to SVT News.