Sunrises, like this one over Saskatoon Lake west of Grande Prairie, would not happen until around 10:30 a.m. in December if permanent daylight time was adopted (Photo: dreamstime.com)

By Shaun Penner

Further off balance

Grande Prairie would be impacted disproportionately with permanent daylight time: expert

Oct 4, 2021 | 1:07 PM

An expert in the field of sleep and circadian rhythm suggests Grande Prairie and area residents could be disproportionately impacted if Alberta were to shift to daylight saving time on a permanent basis.

Michael Antle, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary and the Hotchkiss Institute, has long researched the circadian clock (commonly referred to as the body’s internal clock) and how time shifts impact the body.

Antle spoke with EverythingGP as residents get set to vote on a referendum question placed on the municipal election ballot, asking whether Albertans would like to stay on Mountain Daylight Time on a permanent basis.

However, Antle reads the question being posed by the Alberta government in a different light.

“Do we, as Albertans, want to get up and go to work and school an hour earlier in the winter than we do now? Because that’s essentially what choosing daylight saving time is going to be,” Antle explained.

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Staying on daylight time would remove the switch back to standard time in the fall each year, meaning winter clocks would be an hour ahead of what residents have become accustomed to.

Antle says this means in places like Edmonton, the sunrise in the heart of winter would not happen until around 9:30 a.m., with Grande Prairie not seeing sun in the morning until much later.

“I use Grande Prairie as an example of a community that’s going to be really disadvantaged if we were to move to permanent daylight saving time,” Antle said. “Not only are you so far north… but also Grande Prairie is so far west. In fact, I think you guys technically are west of Los Angeles (California).”

“Because of that, you are really quite delayed in your particular location, relative to the clocks that you follow, which means that on daylight saving time, the sun is not going to rise in Grande Prairie in December until about 10:20 in the morning, which is really late.”

Antle says the body’s internal clock needs to match with people’s work, school and social schedule to follow a proper sleep schedule and be most productive throughout the day.

“Your body clock wants to follow the light. And if the light is really delayed, it’s going to be hard to get up and go to work and go to school and be alert.”

Antle says his research shows Grande Prairie and a majority of Alberta actually fall, ideally, into what would be Pacific Time Zone, adding the Ideal middle of the Mountain Time Zone runs through Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

“So, most of Alberta is not actually in the right location. Most of Alberta should be on Pacific Time.”

He says this in reference to how far off the province is with the time zone it follows and the solar noon, which is the point at which the sun is at its highest point in the sky.

Antle says when the province is on standard time, a location like Calgary hits its solar noon at around 12:50 p.m.

Staying on daylight time, he adds, would push that solar noon to about an hour later in the day.

“When it’s noon on your watch, the sun is at its zenith over Thunder Bay. So, it’s solar noon over Thunder Bay when it’s noon on our watch, and that’s 2,000 km east of us. Just to highlight how offset we actually are from the times that we would be following if we were on daylight time,” said Antle.

“Daylight time for us is almost like double daylight time. In fact, on daylight time, Alberta is more offset from the time we follow than any other place in Canada.”

Conceding to the options available to Alberta, though, Antle would prefer a switch to permanently adopt Mountain Standard Time in Alberta, not daylight time like is being posed by the province.

“That’s the option that every sleep and circadian organization in the world has been endorsing,” said Antle. “We know that with later sunsets, like you have with daylight saving time, people get less sleep, and that leads to higher rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease and even cancer.”

Antle adds he has tried to advocate to the province to turn its attention to standard time, but he suggests his conversations have led him to believe the province would like to align itself better with BC, which is looking to adopt Pacific Daylight Time permanently.

“I said ‘look, Alberta has a unique geographic position, and we need an Alberta solution. But (the province) wants to just follow everybody else, which is unfortunate.”

The referendum question follows a 2019 survey held by the Alberta government, which asked if people would like to remain on Mountain Daylight Time year-round.

Of the over 141,000 people who participated, over 90 per cent said they would be in favour of a single time year-round.