A doctor has hypothesised that clocks in Iceland should be set back an hour, or even two, to be in keeping with the position of the sun. He believes our never-changing clocks contribute to how much sleep medication Icelanders take.
While some countries in the world have adopted the practice of “daylight’s savings” – setting the clock back an hour in the fall and ahead an hour in the spring – Iceland makes no such adjustments. General practitioner Vilhjálmur Ari Arason, writing for Eyjan, believes this is a mistake.
Vilhjálmur points out that if Iceland is admitted into the EU, it will likely have to adopt European Summer Time, when clocks are moved forward one hour in the spring.
Pointing out that Icelandic children’s sleep patterns are already two hours off from adult sleep patterns, Vilhjálmur considers the seasonal changing of the time crucial for adjusting their sleep patterns. Furthermore, he says that Icelanders take more sleep medication than other Scandinavians, and believes this is also due to our unmoving clocks.
Iceland, Belarus and Russia are the only countries in Europe that do not observe European Summer Time.
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