by Emily Bick, Web and Publications Officer
According to a new poll of 15,000 Saga members (all aged 50-plus), two thirds of them wanted to switch to Central European Time to avoid the disruption caused by the clocks moving back an hour for winter.
If you think about it, this makes sense. Longer hours of darkness can keep older people from feeling safe driving or venturing outside, keeping them isolated from their communities. Dark afternoons spent indoors equal higher energy bills for lighting and heating, real worries for anyone on a fixed income. Add Seasonal Affective Disorder, the seasonal depression caused by lack of sunlight, to this mix of loneliness and financial worry, and it's surprising that the two-thirds figure is not higher.
Additionally, a move to Central European Time would help almost everyone, for all of the reasons above as well as being environmentally friendly and energy-efficient, things to consider in these austere times.
If this one change can make such a difference to older people's quality of life, why not make it policy? What do you think?
Read more from the Daily Telegraph.
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