Average sunrise time predicts depression prevalence

Olders, Henry

doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(02)00479-8

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Similar findings are reported for the incidence of winter depression, which also gradually increases within time zones, i.e., the later the sun rises in reference to the social clock (White et al, 2006). This is in contrast to Olders (2003), who finds that later sunrise times, i.e., more western positions in the time zone, are associated with a lower depression prevalence in urban populations. The author argues that sleeping late increases REM sleep, and thus may increase depression risk and suggests that later sunrise times mean earlier rising times in relation to sunrise and therefore proposes to switch to perennial DST.…”

Section: Time Zones and Healthcontrasting

confidence: 99%

Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones – A Battle Between Biological and Social Times

2019

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Many regions and countries are reconsidering their use of Daylight Saving Time (DST) but their approaches differ. Some, like Japan, that have not used DST over the past decades are thinking about introducing this twice-a-year change in clock time, while others want to abolish the switch between DST and Standard Time, but don’t agree which to use: California has proposed keeping perennial DST (i.e., all year round), and the EU debates between perennial Standard Time and perennial DST. Related to the discussion about DST is the discussion to which time zone a country, state or region should belong: the state of Massachusetts in the United States is considering switching to Atlantic Standard Time, i.e., moving the timing of its social clock (local time) 1 h further east (which is equivalent to perennial DST), and Spain is considering leaving the Central European Time to join Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), i.e., moving its social timing 1 h further west. A wave of DST discussions seems to periodically sweep across the world. Although DST has always been a political issue, we need to discuss the biology associated with these decisions because the circadian clock plays a crucial role in how the outcome of these discussions potentially impacts our health and performance. Here, we give the necessary background to understand how the circadian clock , the social clock , the sun clock , time zones, and DST interact. We address numerous fallacies that are propagated by lay people, politicians, and scientists, and we make suggestions of how problems associated with DST and time-zones can be solved based on circadian biology.

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Section: Time Zones and Healthcontrasting

confidence: 99%

Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones – A Battle Between Biological and Social Times

2019

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“…The latitudinal pattern of cloudiness (and sunlight) is remarkable in Chile, with almost cloud-free conditions in northern regions to clouds covering the skies in southern regions for more than 65% of the year (Wilson and Jetz 2016) . The association of sunlight availability (or some proxy) with suicide rates or depression has been described many times in previous studies (Olders 2003;Vyssoki et al 2014;Hernández, Hernández-Sánchez, and Flores-Gutiérrez 2018;Makris et al 2021 ) , which supports our results. In fact, studies emphasizing the relationship between suicide rates and latitude often offer explanations using sunlight availability at some temporal scale as the actual variable behind the pattern (Lester and Shephard 1998;Voracek and Formann 2004;Heerlein, Valeria, and Medina 2006;Davis and Lowell 2002) .…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Association of socioeconomic and environmental factors with the spatio-temporal variability of suicide rates along a latitudinal gradient

Estay

Ruiz‐Aravena²,

Baader³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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BackgroundSuicide results from complex interactions between biological, psychological, and socioeconomic factors. At the population level, the study of suicide rates and their environmental and social determinants allows us to disentangle some of these complexities and provides support for policy design and preventive actions.ObjectivesTo evaluate the associations between environmental and socioeconomic factors and demographically stratified suicide rates on large temporal and spatial scales.MethodThe dataset contains information about yearly suicides rates by sex and age from 2000 through 2017 along a 4,000 km latitudinal gradient. We used zero-inflated negative binomial models to evaluate the spatio-temporal influence of each environmental and socioeconomic variable on suicide rates at each sex/age combination.ResultsOverall, we found differential patterns of associations between suicide rates and explanatory variables by age and sex. Suicide rates in men increases in middle and high latitude regions and intermediate age classes. For adolescent and adult women, we found a similar pattern with an increase in suicide rates at middle and high latitudes. Sex differences measured by the male/female suicide rate ratio shows a marked increase with age. We found that cloudiness has a positive effect on suicide rates in both men and women 24 years old or younger. Regional poverty shows a major impact on men in age classes above 35 years old, an effect that was absent in women. Alcohol and marijuana consumption showed no significant effect sizes.ConclusionsOur findings support high spatio-temporal variability in suicide rates in interaction with extrinsic factors. Several strong differential impacts of environmental and socioeconomic variables on suicide rates depending on sex and age were detected. These results suggest that the design of public policies and interventions to mitigate the impact of the studied variables need to consider the local social and environmental contexts of target populations.

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“…among the depressed who tend to have clear abnormalities in the circadian clockwork [ 14 ]. Earlier waking-up times in relation to sunrise appear to be associated with advances in the phase position of the circadian rhythms [ 15 ] and lower depression prevalence rates [ 16 ]. It is therefore likely that abrupt changes in the light-dark transitions such as those into DST will have more robust effects on affected than healthy subjects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transition into daylight saving time influences the fragmentation of the rest-activity cycle

Lahti

Leppämäki

Ojanen

et al. 2006

J Circadian Rhythms

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Average sunrise time predicts depression prevalence

Cited by 15 publications

References 33 publications

Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones – A Battle Between Biological and Social Times

Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones – A Battle Between Biological and Social Times

Association of socioeconomic and environmental factors with the spatio-temporal variability of suicide rates along a latitudinal gradient

Transition into daylight saving time influences the fragmentation of the rest-activity cycle

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