How does life in cities versus rural areas shape our circadian rhythms? How does access to electricity — or the lack of it — impact sleep timing? And what happens to our circadian rhythms when we move from an urban setting to camping outside?

Our guest Luísa Klaus Pilz (Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin) comments on field studies carried out when she was a PhD student and postdoc at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Laboratório de Cronobiologia e Sono - HCPA/UFRGS).

Links and resources related to the episode’s content

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-29494-4

• https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.773969/full

• https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)31522-6

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(00:44) Questions from a Londoner

(03:07) Guest introduction

(03:57) Why care about rural vs urban light?

(07:28) Sleep changes with urbanization

(09:40) The effects of electricity and artificial light

(10:49) Quilombola communities

(16:38) Metabolic health differences

(20:53) Rural occupations and light exposure

(24:00) Other differences in behaviour

(25:22) Adapting to a different environment

(28:27) Future research questions

(31:49) Outro

For feedback and questions, you can contact us at: lightoclock@tuebingen.mpg.de

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Website: https://www.tscnlab.org/podcast

On 30 March 2025, Europe will switch to Daylight Saving Time (DST), moving clocks forward by one hour. While many people enjoy longer evenings, scientists in sleep and circadian research argue that DST can be harmful to our health. In this episode, we dive into the controversy surrounding DST and answer three key questions:

• Why do chronobiologists want to get rid of DST?

• What does the evidence say about DST’s impact on road traffic accidents?

• What does the public think about abolishing DST?

We hear from experts, including Prof. Till Roenneberg, Prof. Sara Montagnese and Prof. Andrew Coogan, to break down the scientific and political debates around DST. Plus, we explore the short- and long-term health effects of DST on our health, the challenges of assessing this impact, and why public opinion seems to contradict expert recommendations when it comes to clock changes.

Timestamps

(02:11) DST and time zones
(04:12) What happens to our clock when we change to DST
(05:35) Short- and long-term consequences on DST
(07:51) DST and social jet-lag
(10:10) Challenges of studying DST effects on our heath
(11:05) DST and driving performance
(13:45) DST and road traffic accidents
(17:37) Geography matters
(20:30) What does the public think about clock changes?
(23:15) Results of survey on public opinions in Ireland
(26:20) Wording matters: Summer time/Winter time
(30:24) Is this the battle chronobiologists should fight?
(33:00) Summary and outro

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Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/lightoclock.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightoclockpodcast/

Website: https://www.tscnlab.org/podcast

Light O’Clock is back with a brand new season! In the next five episodes, we’re looking beyond the biology of body clocks to explore how our modern world shapes our biological rhythms — and how politics and society influence decisions about our body clocks.

We’ll cover the controversies around clock changes and school start times, discuss how indoor lifestyles might be affecting our vision, compare rhythms of people living in big cities and rural areas, and assess the impact of light pollution on human health and on the environment.

Catch you on Tuesday, 25 March 2025! New episodes released every last Tuesday of the month.

Follow us on social media to stay up to date with our episodes and discover related content:

Bsky: https://bsky.app/profile/lightoclock.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lightoclockpodcast/

Website: https://www.tscnlab.org/podcast