Material prepared by Radio Liberty

On Tuesday, March 26, the Supreme Court refused to invalidate the government's decision canceling the transition to winter time. The statement, which was filed in court by the president of the League of Patients, Alexander Saversky, and the president of the Society of Evidence-Based Medicine, Vasily Vlasov, stated that the difference in astronomical and clock time deprives Russians of proper sleep and, as a result, health. The court found the scientific data and survey results presented by the applicants to be unconvincing.

“No large country lives according to standard time,” Nikolai Novikov, who represents the government’s interests in court, said at a meeting of the Supreme Court. — In Prague and Madrid, people have the same time on their watches, but they are separated by thousands of kilometers. On the other hand, even in the same time zone at the same time, for example in the Arctic and in Sochi, people will be in different light conditions.”

Here, if you think about it, there is a classic substitution of concepts. Nobody argues that in the modern world, for political and economic reasons, it is more convenient to draw the boundaries of time zones not exactly along the meridians, but along the borders of states. This, however, does not explain why all of Russia, with its nine time zones, needs to live two, and in some places even three, hours ahead of the sun.

The second part of Novikov’s argument apparently appeals to physical laws, and this is also impressive. Indeed, if nature itself forces the inhabitants of the Far North to survive in the polar night, then why should it be easier for all other Russians? Why live according to the sun in Sochi if it is impossible to do it in Murmansk?

Novikov also said that “serious research” was carried out before making the decision.

The problem is that all biological rhythms are adjusted not according to chimes or Duma laws, but according to the sun

Coincidentally, a year before the meeting of the Supreme Court, I had the opportunity to meet Konstantin Danilenko from Novosibirsk, Doctor of Medical Sciences and Deputy Director for Scientific and Medical Work of the Research Institute of Physiology and Fundamental Medicine of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr. Danilenko is conducting such serious research; he was even invited to the Duma Committee on Health Protection for consultation, however, after the law on permanent summer time was adopted and caused the first wave of discontent (at the beginning of winter 2011/2012).

Dr. Danilenko analyzed the time of dawn before and after the abolition of winter time. Until 2011, on the shortest day of the year, December 21, it was light in all cities at the latitude of Moscow for about 7 hours, and the sun appeared over the horizon at about 8.30. In 2011, everything shifted an hour, and the sun began to appear around 9:30, two hours later than it should.

At the beginning of 2011, Dmitry Medvedev announced the “cancellation of the transition to winter time.” I don’t know what “serious research” led him to this idea, given that there is no winter time in nature. Time can be astronomical, as close as possible to solar time, and artificial “summer time,” which is introduced in some countries for economic reasons for the period when daylight hours are longer and begin earlier. Summer time is a luxury allowed on long sunny days when it gets light long before you need to get up. Living on summer time in winter is not just inconvenient, but destructive for the body.

The problem is that all biological rhythms are adjusted not according to chimes or Duma laws, but according to the sun. The brain and other organs determine what time it is by the amount of light hitting the retina.

“Our body, in any case, lives by the sun,” says Konstantin Danilenko. “Artificial light in the morning does not help; for biological rhythms, it is the time at which dawn occurs that is important.”

Actually, chronobiologists tend to associate obesity as a global problem with the fact that in the modern world people are increasingly living outside the sun

If we are forced to wake up, have breakfast and start working in the dark, this is the same violence against the body as working at night or getting used to a new time after a flight. In the dark, the body suppresses all wakeful processes (for example, digestion).

In February 2013, a large study was published in the journal Current Biology , once again proving that living outside the sun is harmful to health. The level of insulin (the hormone that regulates blood sugar) varies significantly throughout the day. For example, tissues in mice are not responsive to insulin during the day because mice are naturally active at night and sleep during the day. In humans, by nature, everything is the other way around: roughly speaking, during the day our body is sensitive to insulin, but at night it is not. Mice with artificially disrupted sleep-wake patterns suffered from obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Exactly the same thing happens to people. Actually, chronobiologists tend to associate obesity as a global problem precisely with the fact that in the modern world people are increasingly living outside the sun.

The list of harmful effects of living away from the sun goes beyond diabetes and obesity. It is known that flight attendants who make regular international flights (that is, are forced to frequently adjust their biological clocks) have disrupted menstrual cycles.

In addition, daily awakenings long before dawn provoke serious heart problems. “When a person gets up during an astronomical night, blood pressure is low,” says Dr. Danilenko. “This means that the heart is experiencing ischemia, that is, lack of nutrition. And where there is ischemia, there is a heart attack.”

And the discrepancy between the internal clock and real time provokes cancer. For example, according to a long-term study conducted in Denmark, among women who work night shifts, the risk of breast cancer increases by one and a half times over six months. Dr. Danilenko told me that researchers from the Institute of Physiology of Natural Adaptations of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences recorded a difference in the incidence of cancer in people living on different borders of the same time zone. That is, for example, in Kursk the incidence of cancer will be noticeably higher than in Novgorod, because both cities are in the same time zone, but the sun rises an hour earlier in Novgorod.

In short, the earlier we have to get up before dawn, the greater the risk of fatal diseases. Having been studying this problem for several years, no matter how hard I tried, I have not yet been able to find a single scientist or study that could refute this.

Coordination of times