„Zurückfallen“ macht uns unglücklicher als „Vorwärtsspringen“, heißt es in einer neuen Studie. Diese Verschlechterung der Stimmung ist nach der Umstellung auf Standardzeit im Herbst noch ausgeprägter.
“Falling back” makes us more miserable than “springing forward,” new study finds
33 Kommentare
>A study using U.S. online and social media posts found that people’s moods tend to worsen during the biannual transitions to Daylight Saving Time (in the spring) and Standard Time (in the fall). This worsening of mood is more pronounced after the change to Standard Time in the fall. The [paper](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0342789) was published in PLOS One.
>Seasonal time change is the practice of adjusting clocks twice a year. In spring, clocks are moved forward by one hour to Daylight Saving Time, usually in March. This shift is described as “losing” an hour of sleep. In fall, clocks are moved back by one hour to Standard Time, typically in October or November. This is known as “gaining” an extra hour of sleep.
>The purpose of these changes is to make better use of daylight during longer days. In spring, evenings become lighter, while mornings are darker. In fall, mornings become lighter, while evenings get darker earlier. These changes can temporarily affect sleep patterns and daily routines.
>However, research shows that time changes are associated with negative public sentiment. The shifts also disrupt sleep patterns, increase risks of accidents and health issues, and may impair cognitive functioning. There is an ongoing debate about whether to adopt permanent Daylight Saving Time or permanent Standard Time, as each has different implications for sleep, health, and daily life.
[removed]
Opposite for me, I’m pissed that I lose an hour of sleep and I’m miserable at work for a week.
Make standard time the norm
Edit: https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2025/09/daylight-saving-time.html
That’s obviously because Standard Time sucks ass. We need to abolish it and stay on Daylight Savings Time year round.
Not surprising at all. It’s getting cold and ugly outside and suddenly it’s pitch black dark at 4pm. Leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark sucks big time and yeah, definitely affects my mood.
>The researchers found that while the negative mood drop following the spring change to Daylight Saving Time attenuated (recovered) relatively quickly, the negative sentiment following the fall change to Standard Time persisted for a longer period.
Falling back is also when the weather is getting colder and days are getting shorter in general, not just from Standard time. Springing forward, the weather is getting warmer and days are getting longer. Surely those are going to have a much bigger effect.
I wonder the degree to which this finding can be generalized to people who are routinely sleep deprived or in constant sleep debt, like new parents or medical residents.
Yeah, because extra long dark hours => seasonal affective disorder, i.e. winter depression.
Did this study discover the thing we all already knew? It is statistically independent of SAD?
You know what I dislike more than the (honestly marginal) inconvenience of losing an hour of sleep one day on the weekend once a year?
The twice yearly discourse over abolishing daylight savings time that completely ignores the fact that we already tried that and everyone complained so we went back a year later.
It’s called seasonal depression and it has nothing to do with the 1-3 day adjustment of DST.
Did Big Time write this???
Because there is no way
I think we can all agree that both are complete horseshit.
They didn’t survey me because I prefer winter, spring is the worst season, and I like getting an hour back.
Unscientific insane process that literally causes accidents and death needs to end!
It takes away my ability to do anything outside after work. But it doesn’t gove me time before work. So yeah. That’s depressing
I will vote for any politician whose platform is led by making DST permanent. Literally don’t care what the rest of your platform is. Make DST your top priority and you have my vote.
Well, for those of us who have lived a lifetime with daylight savings, springing forward means warmth and the coming of summer and falling back is a downer.
Why is everything all about making us miserable all the time? I swear 95% of the stuff posted here is about how bad everything is for us and how much we hate everything and everything affects us negatively?
I’m starting to wonder if there’s a bias for negative as opposed to going into these studies with expectation of the positive
What makes it worse for me is stupidity. The whole “scheme” did not make much sense when it was “invented”… and it stop making any sense 50 years ago… and we still doing it for no reason at all.
Doing time change isn’t necessary at all, but with modern devices it seems like this could be done by minutes over a couple weeks instead of all at once over night.
Yeah, the negative perception of the jump to DST is shorter due to the underlying mechanism regulating mood swing: you’re moving into a time of the year with more daylight.
However, looking at this issue with de-trending in mind, many authors have found that actually that DST jump is worse in basically all measurable effects, including an increase in depression , sleep issues or even the excess mortality that follows the hour change. Turns out having sunlight earlier in the morning is more important than having it late in the afternoon, regardless of individual perception.
Many of us leave for work in the darkness and leave work for home in the darkness all winter long. Mentally so exhausting IMO.
They didn’t ask nearly enough people then. As kids we are conditioned to like summer more because it’s when we went on vacation and don’t have school, but colder weather is way more enjoyable. It’s easier to get warm than to get cold.
I hate having to go to work before the sun rises and leaving after it sets so I actually usually get depressed like right before the fall time change and feel better after.
Standard time always please!!
Just the opposite for me
cause its dark af as soon as work ends
Its a thought of impending winter that makes us miserable. The time change itself is just a minor part.
I must be some sort of freak outlier.
I much prefer getting that extra hour of sleep in the Fall, than losing it in the Spring.
And DLS never affects me anyways. I use my phone as an alarm, and it changes the time automatically. The time change happens in the middle of the night on a Sunday, so the only way I notice anything is different is the analog clock in the kitchen is wrong.
Even when I worked nights, it only affected me in that I was either working 1 hour less or 1 hour more.
Can’t we just keep the clock forward so we can keep our extra daylight?
I get pissy because I can’t get off of work and go deer hunting before sunset like I can in October. Evening hunts are only for the weekends during the rut.
The spring one affects me a lot more: suddenly I cycle in the dark again with full winter gear on, and it’s still bright near bedtime
Don’t make the mistake BC just did, and go to permanent Daylight Saving Time. The correct solution is to go to permanent Standard Time.
The only logical choice is permanent Standard Time.