Moving the clocks forward by an hour would help to improve fitness and prevent obesity in children, research suggests.
The extra hours of evening daylight between April and July roughly double the time that children aged 8 to 11 spend on active outdoor play, a comprehensive study of their behaviour has indicated. The effect is explained by the longer, lighter evenings and not by the better weather of the summer months, suggesting that it is also likely to apply at other times of the year.
The findings boost the case for a switch to Central European Time and daylight-saving “double summer time”, as proposed in a Private Member’s Bill now before Parliament.
The research, led by Anna Goodman, of the London School of Hygiene and