The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK

Megan R Crawford¹, Eva C Winnebeck², Malcolm von Schantz³, Maria Gardani⁴, Michelle A Miller⁵, Victoria Revell⁶, Alanna Hare^{7

8}, Caroline L Horton^{9

10}, Simon Durrant^{10

11}, Joerg Steier¹²

Affiliations

¹ University of Strathclyde Centre for Sleep Health, Department of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
² Section of Chronobiology, School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
³ Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
⁴ School of Health in Social Science, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
⁵ Directorate of Warwick Applied Health, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
⁶ Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
⁷ Department of Sleep and Ventilation, Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, London, UK.
⁸ Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, NHLI, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁹ Department of Psychology, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK.
¹⁰ Lincoln Sleep Research Centre, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
¹¹ School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
¹² Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London, UK.

PMID: 39439274
PMCID: PMC12069735
DOI: 10.1111/jsr.14352

Review

The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK

Megan R Crawford et al. J Sleep Res. 2025 Jun.

. 2025 Jun;34(3):e14352.

doi: 10.1111/jsr.14352. Epub 2024 Oct 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ University of Strathclyde Centre for Sleep Health, Department of Psychological Sciences and Health, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
² Section of Chronobiology, School of Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
³ Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
⁴ School of Health in Social Science, Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
⁵ Directorate of Warwick Applied Health, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
⁶ Surrey Sleep Research Centre, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
⁷ Department of Sleep and Ventilation, Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals, London, UK.
⁸ Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer, NHLI, Imperial College London, London, UK.
⁹ Department of Psychology, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK.
¹⁰ Lincoln Sleep Research Centre, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
¹¹ School of Psychology, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
¹² Centre for Human and Applied Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, London, UK.

PMID: 39439274
PMCID: PMC12069735
DOI: 10.1111/jsr.14352

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate in the United Kingdom and in other countries about whether twice-yearly changes into and out of Daylight Saving Time should be abolished. Opinions are divided about whether any abolition of Daylight Saving Time should result in permanent Standard Time, or year-long Daylight Saving Time. The British Sleep Society concludes from the available scientific evidence that circadian and sleep health are affected negatively by enforced changes of clock time (especially in a forward direction) and positively by the availability of natural daylight during the morning. Thus, our recommendation is that the United Kingdom should abolish the twice-yearly clock change and reinstate Standard Time throughout the year.

Keywords: Daylight Saving Time; Standard Time; circadian clock; circadian timing systems; clock change; clock time; sleep.

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Conflict of interest statement

MC is a consultant for Signifier Medical Technologies and has received research funding from BRUK. EW has received research funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). MG has received funding from Capella Charity for running training events. MM has received research funding from NIHR, royalties from Oxford University Press for Sleep, Health and Society Textbooks. MvS has received research funding from the MRC, Wellcome Trust and NIH. VR has received research funding from the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice, UKDRI and NIHR, she is also a scientific advisor for Lumie. AH has received speaker fees from Idorsia Pharmaceuticals, Holland and Barrett, and Fisher and Paykel. These activities have not influenced the submitted work. All other authors report no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous 3 years, and no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work. All authors are members of the BSS Executive Committee or BSS executive committee co‐opted subgroups. The British Sleep Society paid for the production of the image for the manuscript (payment received by Oliver Burdekin at burdGis).

Figures

**FIGURE 1**
Sunrise times across the UK on winter solstice. Panel 1 illustrates sunrise time during permanent Standard Time. Panel 2 illustrates sunrise time during permanent Daylight Saving Time (DST).

**FIGURE 2**
Number of days per year with sunrise after 07:00h and 09:00h , and sunset after 18:00 hours and 21:00 hours in cities across the UK for the scenarios of permanent Standard Time (pST), seasonal Daylight Saving Time (DST) and permanent DST (pDST). Data are for 2024 (366 days as a leap year). Sunrise and sunset calculations were performed with the R‐package suncalc (doi: 10.32614/CRAN.package.suncalc). Tabular data for these figures are presented in Tables S1 and S2.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK

Affiliations

The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources