Improving adjustment to daylight saving time transitions with light

Abstract Daylight saving time (DST) is currently utilized in many countries with the rationale that it enhances the alignment between daylight hours and activity peaks in the population. The act of transitioning into and out of DST introduces disruptions to the circadian rhythm, thereby impacting sleep and overall health. Despite the substantial number of individuals affected, the consequences of this circadian disruption have often been overlooked. Here, we employ a mathematical model of the human circadian pacemaker to elucidate how the biological clock interacts with daytime and evening exposures to both natural and electrical light. This interaction plays a crucial role in determining the adaptation to the 1 hour time zone shift imposed by the transition to or from DST. In global discussions about DST, there is a prevailing assumption that individuals easily adjust to DST transitions despite a few studies indicating that the human circadian system requires several days to fully adjust to a DST transition. Our study highlights that evening light exposure changes can be the main driving force for re-entrainment, with chronobiological models predicting that people with longer intrinsic period (i.e. later chronotype) entrain more slowly to transitions to or from DST as compared to people with a shorter intrinsic period (earlier chronotype). Moreover, the model forecasts large inter-individual differences in the adaptation speed, in particular during the spring transition. The predictions derived from our model offer circadian biology-based recommendations for light exposure strategies that facilitate a more rapid adaptation to DST-related transitions or travel across a single time zone. As such, our study contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on DST and its implications for human circadian rhythms.