Advisory — Permanent Alberta Time means no extra hour of sleep this weekend — what else?

The province’s move to permanent Alberta Time (ABT) means Albertans will no longer be collecting an extra hour of sleep this weekend.

For decades we’ve become accustomed to turning back our clocks by one hour every fall as Alberta shifted from daylight to standard time. This year, provincial legislation under the Official Time Act ended semi-annual clock changes in Alberta.

The change means we will experience darkness much later into the morning hours during fall and winter, with sunrises in Lethbridge occurring as late as 9:28 a.m. by late December. In some northern Alberta communities, the sun won’t appear until after 10:30 a.m.

“Daylight Saving Time is a social experiment our biological clocks never agreed to,” says Department of Neuroscience Professor Dr. Rob McDonald.

“If your social clock says you must get up at 7 a.m. and it’s completely dark outside, your internal biological clock is going to say, ‘what are you doing I have to be sleeping’. That rich broad-spectrum light you get from the sun is very powerful for setting your biological clock and the lights in your house aren’t going to cut it.”

McDonald is a former Canada Research Chair and Board of Governors Research Chair in Neuroscience. His areas of study include the effects of circadian dysfunction on the brain and body. The circadian system — or circadian rhythm — is the body’s natural timing system which regulates things like sleep, digestion, body temperature and hormone production.

WHAT: Media availability with Department of Neuroscience Professor, Dr. Rob McDonald

WHEN: Friday, Oct. 30, 10 a.m.

WHERE: Science Commons, 1 Coulee Trail, University of Lethbridge campus (meet inside the main entrance lobby)

This will be the only opportunity for in-person, on-camera interviews — however Dr. McDonald does have limited availability to accommodate phone and virtual requests from media unable to attend.