Daylight saving may not fade the curtains but it does have a negative effect on neurological function, according to US neurologists who want to see an end to clocks being put forward and back every year.

In a commentary article published in JAMA Neurology, neurologist Dr Beth Malow and colleagues from the Sleep Disorders Division, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, say it is time for government policymakers to reconsider the evidence – or lack of it – for the purported benefits and risks of daylight saving.

With the US now reviewing its legislation on mandatory adoption of daylight saving, they argue that one of the main justifications for the practice – energy conservation – is not supported by any robust evidence.

They point to a recent US Department of Energy assessment of the potential effects to national energy consumption of an extended DST that found a reduction in total primary energy consumption of just 0.02%.

But when it comes to health effects, there is clear evidence  that daylight saving changes have detrimental associations with the brain, specifically ischaemic stroke, and with the risk of myocardial infarction and well-being also affected.

Daylight saving time adjustments are also reported to be associated with lower quality of sleep, shorter sleep duration, and decreased psychomotor vigilance, they write.

The adverse effects appear to be related to disruptions in the underlying genetic mechanisms that contribute to the expression of the circadian clock and its behavioural manifestations in neurology (ie, chronotype), they say.

“While it is unclear how disruptive a one-hour time change is to otherwise healthy individuals, it is possible that individuals with extreme manifestations of chronotype or circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders, neurological disorders, or children and adolescents whose brains are still developing are more susceptible to the adverse health effects that occur following the DST transition,” the authors say.

More studies are needed to understand the causes of the detrimental health effects of daylight saving and the role of sleep deprivation and circadian disruption, they argue.

“Based on these data, we advocate for the elimination of transitions to daylight saving time,” they conclude.