Daylight saving time disrupts sleep for majority of Quebecers, survey finds

A new survey by the Léger firm highlights that the time change in the spring affects the sleep of Canadians, while at the same time more than four out of ten people say they have a sleep debt, that is to say, they sleep less than seven hours a night.

In addition, 67 per cent of Canadians find their sleep routine disrupted by the time change and take several days to return to a normal rhythm.

Dr. Annick Vincent, a psychiatrist, likes the analogy of debt to explain the effects of sleep deprivation. In financial management, she illustrates, everything is fine if you spend and pay immediately. “It’s okay, you’re not too indebted. But if you start spending and living on credit, there will be consequences that will accumulate in the long term,” she says.

The consequences of not getting enough sleep are not insignificant in terms of health, because sleep is essential not only for energy recovery, but also for consolidating learning, memory, metabolic, immune, cardiovascular health, etc.

“The impact of missing an hour of sleep, whether due to the time change or because we missed an hour of sleep that night, the next day, we have short-term impacts. The brain behaves a bit like it has ADHD, so an induced attention deficit disorder,” explains Dr. Vincent.

She points the finger at today’s society, which highly values ​​hyper-performance. Yet, she emphasizes, people try to perform better by cutting back on their sleep, which ultimately reduces their cognitive performance and, consequently, their effectiveness at work.

“From a mental health perspective, we need good sleep to be able to properly modulate our attention, but also to modulate our moods, and to make decisions that are well thought out based on our ability to restrain ourselves. We are more impulsive when we lack sleep, which makes us more at risk of having accidents, both through inattention and through poor decision-making,” mentions Dr. Vincent.

The survey results indicate that 18 per cent of Canadians admit to having driven while feeling unfit after losing an hour of sleep during the switch to summer time, a rate that drops to 16 per cent among Quebecers.

This is serious, according to Dr. Vincent. “We become sleep-drunk when we lack sleep. So, we shouldn’t [drive] when we are tired any more than if we have had a drink,” she summarizes.

Three days or more to return to normal

According to the survey, 45 per cent of Canadians say that losing an hour of sleep during daylight saving time worsens their sleep problems, a rate that drops to 39 per cent for respondents in Quebec.

Moreover, 65 per cent of Canadians say they suffer from sleep disorders, including difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep (55 per cent in Quebec).

Normally, for every hour of sleep missed, you need a good night’s sleep to recover, but this can vary from person to person.

Only 11 per cent of Canadians reported that their sleep routine recovers the same day after losing an hour of sleep during the switch to daylight saving time in the spring, while a third say it takes them three days or more to get back to normal.

Furthermore, 59 per cent reported experiencing effects the day after losing an hour of sleep during daylight saving time. The most common effects were fatigue and decreased productivity.

Among the strategies for those who have difficulty adapting to the time change, Dr. Vincent mentions that one should try to get up at a regular time to get used to the new time.

To better understand sleep disorders and other sleep-related difficulties and to get reliable recommendations, Dr. Vincent suggests that people consult the website dormezladessuscanada.ca, which stems from a Canadian public health campaign on sleep.

In total, 1570 Canadians participated in the survey between January 30, 2025 and February 1, 2026. A sample of this size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

—The Canadian Press’s health coverage is supported by a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. The Canadian Press is solely responsible for this journalistic content.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews