‘The Waste of Daylight’: Rhythmicity, Workers’ Health and Britain’s Edwardian Daylight Saving Time Bills
Today the practice of daylight saving time remains controversial. Chronobiologists (scientists who study circadian rhythms) have demonstrated how seasonal time changes negatively affect our health. Many scientists and doctors are advocating for ending the practice of ‘falling back’ or ‘springing forward’ - but why did we start changing the clocks in the first place?
This new research article for the Social History of Medicine considers the birth of daylight saving time from the perspective of health. I argue that the original DST bills were, in essence, public health measures aimed at re-aligning workers’ rhythms closer to the rising and setting of the sun. Greater evening sun was believed to have wide benefits in combatting urban diseases like anaemia, rickets and tuberculosis. At the same time, the temporal stress represented by the time change pushed some early rising workers to getting up for work in the middle of the night. How flexible are bodily rhythms? How important is sleep? And do our bodies really know what time it is?
I am delighted to have been supported by the University of Copenhagen and the Novo Nordisk Foundation to publish this research Open Access.
Cover page for William Willett’s pamphlet advocating for a seasonal time change, 1912, Wikicommons.