Marcelo Leite: Summer time should be permanent – 03/25/2023 – Marcelo Leite

The autumnal equinox passed, Monday (20), and nobody noticed. If Brazil still had daylight savings time, today would be the day to set clocks back one hour, returning to what six decades ago the priest from Ubatuba —who kept the hands on the church tower unchanged— called “God’s hour”.

The astronomical ephemeris marks the date on which day and night are equal in duration, with the sun falling directly on the equator. On the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere (December 22 in 2023), sunlight will hit perpendicularly on the Tropic of Capricorn, and we will have the longest day of the year.

Until Bolsonaro detonated daylight savings time, in October everyone put their clocks forward by one hour. Most celebrated the chance to leave work during the day, to be able to play soccer, go to the beach or chat longer at the bar.

A minority, however, did not and does not see the point in interfering so much in biological processes regulated by light (circadian rhythms). It abruptly affects sleep, with measurable consequences on health and the performance of everyday tasks, such as driving a car.

There are statistics showing an increase in traffic accidents in the days after the clocks come and go. Heart attacks, strokes and cases of seasonal depression are on the rise — not to mention the bad mood of those who were forced to sleep and wake up at the time that others decided, even if democratically.

It turns out that there are not only epidemiological statistics, but also the outputs of public opinion polls. And these indicate that there is a majority in favor of summer time.

With that in mind, some legislators outside Brazil are proposing that it become permanent. Put the clocks forward one hour and never go back. Adopted the measure here, during the southeastern winter the children would go to school in the dark, late at night.

It’s even scary that some Brazilian congressman will follow the example of Marc Rubio in the US. The Trumpist senator from the “sunshine state” (Florida) got unanimous support from colleagues to approve, in 2022, the definitive adoption of the “daylight savings time”, an allusion to the small electricity savings that serves as a pretext for the attack against biorhythms.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine raged, deploring the legislation that ended up off the House agenda last year. While applauding the end of the hands’ dance, experts argue that permanent becomes the standard time, in their assessment more suited to the circadian cycle in the human species.

Rubio returned to the charge reactivating his proposal in the Senate. There is similar legislation pending in the House and, once approved by the deputies, it will go to Joe Biden’s sanction. The president will then have to decide whether he is for or against the 53% of Americans who prefer permanent DST.

The 2021 Datafolha survey found that a similar number of Brazilians, 55%, prefer their return. It is to be assumed that they are also in favor of making it definitive, since moving clocks forward and backward every year is not to everyone’s liking.

Here is a classic case of divergence between science-based rationality and public preference. People give more weight to advantages perceived by the majority, to the detriment of measurable, albeit marginal, harm to life and health.

The lesser of two evils: if we are going to have daylight saving time, let us at least be free to change the clock twice a year. And let the opportunity be taken to change school entrance times as well, this morning insanity that so harms the learning of children and adolescents.

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