Health expert urges Morocco to drop daylight saving time, citing health risks

As Morocco reintroduces daylight saving time (GMT+1) amid growing public opposition, a prominent health expert is warning that the policy may be harming public health.

In a paper shared with Hespress, Dr. Tayeb Hamdi, a physician and researcher in health systems, outlined four main options for Morocco’s time system, ranking them by health impact. He said the healthiest option is to adopt standard winter time year-round with no seasonal changes.

“Permanent winter time best respects the body’s natural rhythms,” Hamdi wrote. “It minimizes sleep disruption and aligns with the human biological clock.”

The current system, he said, is the least healthy of the four: a mix of permanent daylight saving time with additional time changes during Ramadan, just six weeks apart. “This short interval does not give the body time to adjust and can lead to compounded health effects,” he warned.

Hamdi also criticized the idea of reverting to a twice-yearly time change over five to seven months, saying it would still cause disruptions. “People can take days or even weeks to adapt to a new time,” he said, especially children, teenagers, older adults, night workers and those with sleep disorders.

He rejected a fifth scenario — changing the time four times per year — as completely unfeasible. “No other Arab or Islamic country adjusts its time for Ramadan,” he noted.

Scientific studies show that the body resets its internal clock through strong morning light exposure, Hamdi said. “Any disruption to that rhythm, especially the shift to daylight saving time, has been linked to negative health outcomes,” he added.

While Hamdi acknowledged that non-health considerations such as energy use or economic impact may factor into policy, he called for more interdisciplinary studies to determine whether these truly outweigh health risks.

The Moroccan government has maintained daylight saving time since 2018, with an exception for Ramadan, but the measure remains controversial and often unpopular with the public.