Though President Dmitry Medvedev’s initiative to end daylight saving time was greeted with approval by most Russians early last year, many have since changed their minds, with some experts saying darker mornings can have negative effects on mood and health.
Medvedev said his decision to switch to "permanent summer time" was made after studies showed that the semiannual switch to daylight saving time and back is an unnecessary strain on public health. A poll conducted in Russia in February 2011 showed that some 60% of Russians supported the decision.
But a year later 46% of respondents said in an online survey by the HeadHunter portal that the darker mornings have a negative impact on their mood, well-being and motivation. The remaining 54 percent, however, said the cancellation of daylight saving time caused no inconvenience to them.
Experts say dawns that come an hour later can be dangerous for people’s health, mood and work and that it’s easier for the human body to deal with an extra hour of darkness in the evening than in the morning.
Viktoria Arshinova, a senior researcher at the laboratory of medical and psychological rehabilitation of the Moscow State University of Psychology and Education, said residents of most of Russia’s territory now live with a two-hour difference between the astronomical time and social time.
“Our daytime alertness is now in discord with the clocks of nature. Our internal, biological clocks are not synchronized with the external, social time,” Arshinova said, adding that it would be more practical to switch to permanent wintertime.
She said people's bodies and minds are more inclined to rest and sleep when it’s dark outside and many people fell exhausted, having to forcefully adjust their biological clocks to social ones. This, in its turn, leads to depression as people feel deprived of energy and time.
Arshinova said “depression is silent aggression” and will lead to increased drug and alcohol abuse.
Russia's chief physician Alexander Chuchalin confirmed that many people are vulnerable to time shifts, especially children and the elderly.
“That’s why I would like to recommend returning to old biological clocks that we used to have,” he said. “That old system is better adjusted to the human physiology.”
Director of the Institute of Psychological and. Pedagogical Problems of Childhood Tatyana Volosovets said that many people notice that it now became more difficult to wake their children.
"When a child wakes up, it seems to him that it’s still night, not morning outside. And though the clocks show seven in the morning they still have a feeling inside that it’s five or six in the morning, or even earlier,” Volosovets said.
“First lessons take place when it’s dark outside. And intellectual work is done much easier in daylight. It’s very difficult to start work or studies, it would be much better for our health if our country switched to permanent winter time.”
