On how to adjust to daylight saving time now, my answer for most people on Vancouver Island is that there's nothing left to reset. British Columbia stopped changing its clocks this year, and the spring-forward on March 8, 2026 was the last change. On November 1, 2026, when clocks would have gone back, they stayed put.
Daylight saving time is the practice of setting clocks an hour ahead of standard time for part of the year. BC now keeps that later hour all year, as Pacific time, seven hours behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC-7). What's left is darker winter mornings, phones or calendars that may follow the old rule, and trips to places that still switch. For those, the old advice holds: move bedtime 15 to 20 minutes a night before a change, and get daylight early.
I'm Michael Ruhr from Merit Home Furniture in Duncan. I sell beds and bedroom furniture, not medical advice, so the health points below come from HealthLink BC, BC's health authorities, sleep medicine societies or a named study.
Did BC stop daylight saving time? What changed on November 1, 2026
Yes, BC has stopped the twice-yearly clock change. The Province announced on March 2, 2026 that the spring change on March 8 would be the last one. Its page published on October 30 confirms that on November 1, when clocks would have gone back an hour, "no change will be made."
The new time zone is called Pacific time, written PCT, and it replaces the old PST and PDT labels. It runs at UTC-7, the same offset BC used every summer, so the Island keeps summer time through the winter.
The Interpretation Amendment Act became law in 2019, but the Province held off on bringing it into force so it could move with the neighbouring US states. A regulation brought it into effect on March 8, 2026. The 2019 public engagement drew a record 223,000 people, and 93% of them supported year-round daylight time.
The northeast, around Dawson Creek, now matches the rest of BC. The Province's October page says Cranbrook, Fernie, Golden and the other southeastern communities stay with Alberta at UTC-6, an hour ahead of the Island.
Sunrise in Duncan this winter on BC's year-round daylight time
The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) runs a sunrise calculator that still lists Duncan on Pacific standard time, UTC-8. Its note says to add one hour when daylight time is in effect, which on BC's clock is every day now. NRC's figures are in brackets beside BC clock time.
| Date in Duncan | Sunrise, BC clock (NRC listing) | Sunset, BC clock (NRC listing) |
|---|---|---|
| November 1, 2026 | 8:02 a.m. (7:02) | 5:54 p.m. (16:54) |
| December 21, 2026 | 9:05 a.m. (8:05) | 5:21 p.m. (16:21) |
| January 1, 2027 | 9:08 a.m. (8:08) | 5:29 p.m. (16:29) |
| January 31, 2027 | 8:46 a.m. (7:46) | 6:11 p.m. (17:11) |
| February 28, 2027 | 7:59 a.m. (6:59) | 6:57 p.m. (17:57) |
| June 21, 2027 | 5:12 a.m. (4:12) | 9:22 p.m. (20:22) |
So the latest sunrises of the winter in Duncan come around New Year's Day, at about 9:08 a.m. Under the old switching system it would have been 8:08. The evening gets the hour back: on the shortest day, sunset is 5:21 p.m. rather than 4:21.
Summer is unchanged, since BC already ran on UTC-7 from March to November.
The Canadian Sleep Society raised this in its position statement on daylight saving time. It found that under daylight time, winter sunrise in most major Canadian cities would come at about 8:45, and well after 8 a.m. above latitude 50. NRC puts Duncan at 48.78 degrees north, and it still sees 9 a.m. sunrises around Christmas.
How to adjust to daylight saving time now that BC's clocks stay put
Adjusting to daylight saving time in BC now means getting used to dark mornings, not a lost or gained hour. Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) wrote about BC's first winter under permanent daylight time in an October 27 bulletin. It suggests consistent bedtimes and wake times, less screen use before bed, and natural light during the day.
Light is the reason. HealthLink BC explains that light and dark affect how the body makes melatonin, a hormone that helps you fall asleep and stay asleep. Its sleeping-better page adds that time in sunlight helps reset the body's sleep and wake cycles. With a 9 a.m. sunrise, that may mean a walk at lunch rather than first thing. If you're trying to wake up earlier this winter, small steps toward an earlier alarm work better than one big jump.
- Keep one wake time. HealthLink BC suggests going to bed at the same time every night and getting up at the same time every morning, even when tired.
- Use the afternoon light. VCH points out that permanent daylight time gives more light later in the day, and encourages using it for outdoor activity.
- Dim the evening. HealthLink BC suggests keeping phones, computers and tablets out of the hours before bed, since their light can make it harder to unwind.
- Keep the bedroom dark, cool and quiet. HealthLink BC mentions curtains or blinds to block light. That counts most in June, when Duncan's sun rises at 5:12 a.m.
The bedroom is the part Merit can help with. I'd want a lamp within reach of the bed, so a 7 a.m. alarm in the dark doesn't start with the ceiling light. That means a nightstand close to the height of the mattress top, which matching a nightstand to your bed walks through. Of the nightstands on Merit's listings, 37 list our Duncan store, priced from $138.00 to $849.00 before applicable taxes. Two solid maple Mako pieces sit at the top of that range, the Saffron two-and-a-half-drawer nightstand and the Megan two-and-a-half-drawer model.
Three come from the lower half of that range. The Ashley Shawburn nightstand is $138.00, and the LH Home West, with one drawer and an open shelf, is $349.00. The Mako Decora two-drawer in solid wood is $399.00. All three list Duncan, the Shawburn lists Port Alberni too, and the rest are in our nightstand listings. On Merit's listings, the Decora also belongs to Mako's Decora bedroom collection, with matching dressers, chests and a panel bed. Where Mako builds and what wood it uses has a guide of its own.
How long does it take your body to adjust to daylight savings?
No Canadian health body puts a number of days on a one-hour shift. HealthLink BC says most people get over jet lag 3 to 4 days after a flight, and jet lag there means crossing two or more time zones. In the Current Biology study of US crashes described further down, the extra risk after the spring change faded within the week. A few days to a week is my own reading of those figures, a furniture man's estimate rather than a health authority's.
Will my cell phone automatically adjust for daylight savings time?
Most phones are expected to update on their own once the maker's update arrives, Alberta's government says, but not every device will. Island Health's notice, last updated October 29, warns that some phones and computer calendars may still follow the old rules and move times back by one hour. Its page adds that a calendar may already have shifted the time of a future appointment.
Phones and computers take their time zone rules from a shared database kept by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Its 2026b release, dated April 22, 2026, added BC's move to permanent UTC-7. A device that hasn't installed an update since then may fall back on its own.
For appointments, Island Health says to use the time your clinic gave you by phone, text, email or letter, even if the calendar disagrees. Its page also sorts out the labels: PDT, MST and Yukon time all mean UTC-7, the same as BC's Pacific time. If a delivery or service time from any business looks an hour off, a quick call settles it, and that includes a time booked for a Merit furniture delivery day.
Turning on automatic time zone updates, and setting a clock by hand
Alberta made the same kind of move this year, and its government's device advice works just as well here. Install the latest software updates first, then check that automatic date, time and time zone settings are on. Some older devices may not update automatically, Alberta's page warns. If a phone still shows the wrong hour after that, picking a zone listed as UTC-7, as Island Health suggests for appointments, is one workaround.
Clocks that set themselves are the other catch. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) notes that some non-radio "self-setting" clocks carry the change dates in their firmware, and those need resetting by hand. Alberta's list includes vehicles, so check the car too.
In places that still spring forward, NIST explains that the clock skips from 2 a.m. straight to 3 a.m. An alarm set for 2:30 that night points at a time that never happens. BC no longer has that night.
Calls and trips to provinces and states that still change time twice a year
BC wasn't alone in 2026. Alberta adopted permanent Alberta Time at UTC-6, and Manitoba announced on September 17 that its clocks would not go back on November 1. Manitoba's release lists Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Saskatchewan as already on, or moving to, a permanent time. Yukon has kept one time since 2020, per the CMAJ analysis below.
Most of Ontario, Quebec, Atlantic Canada and nearly all of the US still switch, going by IANA's time zone data. Washington, Oregon and California fell back on November 1, so they now sit an hour behind the Island. Under the US and Canadian rule, they spring forward on the second Sunday of March, which is March 14, 2027, and fall back again on November 7, 2027.
| Place | November 1, 2026 to March 14, 2027 | March 14 to November 7, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Yukon, Arizona | Same time as Duncan | Same time as Duncan |
| Washington, Oregon, California | 1 hour behind | Same time as Duncan |
| Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories | 1 hour ahead | 1 hour ahead |
| Manitoba | 2 hours ahead | 2 hours ahead |
| Most of Ontario and Quebec, New York | 2 hours ahead | 3 hours ahead |
| Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI | 3 hours ahead | 4 hours ahead |
| Newfoundland | 3 hours 30 minutes ahead | 4 hours 30 minutes ahead |
Toronto is the one that catches people out. A 9 a.m. meeting there is now 7 a.m. on the Island in winter, where it used to be 6 a.m., and 6 a.m. again in summer. Parts of northwestern Ontario are an exception, since they now follow Manitoba.
Adjusting your sleep for a time change on a trip
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) suggests shifting bedtime 15 to 20 minutes a night for a few nights before a time change. That means earlier before the spring change and later before the fall one. It also suggests moving mealtimes to match, morning sunlight after the spring change, and the normal bedtime on the night the clocks move. Someone already short on sleep, it adds, is better off skipping the later bedtimes in fall and taking the extra hour.
Travel works the same way. HealthLink BC's jet lag page suggests going to bed an hour earlier each night for a few days before flying east, or an hour later before flying west. For a trip of 2 days or less, it suggests staying on home time. A winter weekend in Seattle, an hour behind us, may need no adjusting at all.
Daylight saving time and sleep: what studies found about the spring change
The spring change is the one researchers have studied most, because it takes an hour of sleep from nearly everyone at once. Large studies have linked it to a short rise in heart attacks and fatal crashes. They show patterns across big populations, and they can't tell anyone their own risk.
| Study | What it looked at, and what it found |
|---|---|
| Sandhu, Seth and Gurm, Open Heart, 2014 | Heart attack admissions for angioplasty in a Michigan database, across seven changes from 2010 to 2013. The Monday after the spring change had a 24% rise in daily heart attacks, and the Tuesday after the fall change a 21% drop. Weekly totals held steady, so the authors concluded the shift moves the timing, not the number. |
| Manfredini and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2019 | A pooled analysis of 7 studies covering more than 115,000 people. Heart attack risk rose modestly after the spring change, with an odds ratio of 1.05. The week after the fall change looked no different from other weeks. |
| Fritz, VoPham, Wright and Vetter, Current Biology, 2020 | 732,835 fatal crashes recorded across the US from 1996 to 2017. The spring change raised fatal crash risk by 6%, more so in the morning, and the rise faded within the week. The fall change had no effect on crashes. |
The AASM's 2020 position statement in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine ties the spring transition to risks that include heart problems, mood disorders and motor vehicle crashes. It also says the long-term effects of staying on daylight time all year "have not been well studied."
Permanent standard time or daylight time: where sleep researchers stand
BC's choice runs against the sleep societies' advice. The AASM updated its position in October 2023, printed in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine in 2024 by Rishi and colleagues. It calls for permanent standard time as the closer fit with human circadian biology. The Canadian Sleep Society recommends permanent standard time as well, mainly because of dark winter mornings at Canadian latitudes.
A CMAJ analysis in October 2026 by Raymond Lam of UBC, with colleagues from UBC, SFU and VCH, came to the same place. "The preponderance of health evidence favours pST," the authors wrote, meaning permanent standard time. A 2025 Stanford Medicine study in PNAS, which BC's announcement links to, modelled the US. Either fixed time beat switching, and permanent daylight time gave about two-thirds of the benefit of permanent standard time.
So the research leans away from the clock BC chose, without settling the question. The AASM, Stanford's modellers and the BC government do agree on ending the twice-yearly switch, which removes the spring change those studies measured.
Where year-round daylight time can make sleep harder on the Island
Permanent daylight time trades morning light for evening light, and some households feel that more.
- Dark commutes to school and work. VCH notes that in parts of the winter, many people, especially students and small children, may be travelling before sunrise. It suggests bright colours, lights and reflective gear.
- Night owls. HealthLink BC describes night owls as people who have a hard time falling asleep until very late, and a 9 a.m. sunrise leaves them less morning daylight to work with.
- Bright, warm June bedtimes. With a 9:22 p.m. sunset, a west-facing bedroom can still be light and warm when it's time to sleep. Keeping a bed cooler through Island summers goes through coils and cooling covers, and the Health Guard sheet sets we list are picked up free at Merit's Duncan store.
- Clocks that still follow the old rule. Phones, shared calendars, self-setting alarm clocks and car dashboards, as described above.
- A tired mattress blamed on the clock. If sleep was poor well before November, the time change isn't the whole story. How to tell a mattress is worn out is a free check before anyone buys anything.
When sleep trouble after a time change is a reason to see a doctor
A rough night or two around a time change or a trip is common. HealthLink BC says short-term insomnia can last days to weeks, while insomnia lasting at least 3 months is chronic. Its sleep pages list the signs that belong with a doctor.
| HealthLink BC says | When |
|---|---|
| Call 9-1-1 | Any emergency: call 9-1-1 or the local emergency number immediately. |
| Get help right away | Someone talks about suicide, self-harm or a mental health crisis. Talk Suicide Canada is 1-833-456-4566, or text 45645 from 4 p.m. to midnight Eastern time. |
| Talk to a doctor | Daytime sleepiness gets in the way of normal activities. Don't drive or use machinery while drowsy. |
| Call a doctor | During home care, feeling very tired or struggling to function in the day, or symptoms coming more often or getting more severe. |
| Call your doctor | Loud, heavy snoring with daytime sleepiness, or a bed partner who stops breathing, gasps or chokes in sleep. That's from its sleep apnea page. |
| Review medicines | Several nights of trouble sleeping: go over prescription and non-prescription medicines with a doctor or pharmacist. |
For advice in between, 8-1-1 is HealthLink BC's toll-free line in the province, and it can connect you with a registered nurse, a pharmacist or a dietitian. HealthLink BC lists 7-1-1 for callers who are deaf or hard of hearing. Nobody at Merit can diagnose a sleep problem, and a new bed isn't a treatment for one.
Where the time change and sleep facts come from
- Government of British Columbia, B.C.'s new time zone (Pacific time), published October 30, 2026, checked November 2026.
- BC Gov News, Adopting permanent daylight saving time, news release and backgrounder of March 2, 2026, checked November 2026.
- National Research Council Canada, Sunrise/sunset calculator, Duncan BC, single days from November 2026 to June 2027, checked November 2026.
- Island Health, November 1 time change notice for appointments (updated October 29, 2026), checked November 2026.
- Vancouver Coastal Health, Fall care: Supporting well-being during darker mornings (October 27, 2026), checked November 2026.
- HealthLink BC, Sleep and Your Body Clock, checked November 2026.
- HealthLink BC, Sleeping Better, checked November 2026.
- HealthLink BC, Sleep Problems, Age 12 and Older, checked November 2026.
- HealthLink BC, Sleep Apnea, When to Call a Doctor, checked November 2026.
- HealthLink BC, Sleep Problems: Dealing With Jet Lag, checked November 2026.
- American Academy of Sleep Medicine, Sleep Education, Daylight Saving Time and its transition sleep tips, checked November 2026.
- Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2020: Rishi and colleagues, Daylight saving time, an AASM position statement (PubMed 32844740), checked November 2026.
- Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2024: Rishi and colleagues, Permanent standard time, an AASM position statement (PubMed 37904574), checked November 2026.
- Canadian Sleep Society, Position statement on the practice of daylight saving time, checked November 2026.
- CMAJ, October 2026: Lam, Mistlberger, Baylis and Choi, Health impacts of permanent standard time or permanent daylight saving time in Canada (PubMed 42833692), checked November 2026.
- Stanford Medicine, Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time (September 2025), checked November 2026.
- Open Heart, 2014: Sandhu, Seth and Gurm, Daylight savings time and myocardial infarction (PubMed 25332784), checked November 2026.
- Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2019: Manfredini and colleagues, Daylight saving time and acute myocardial infarction, a meta-analysis (PubMed 30909587), checked November 2026.
- Current Biology, 2020: Fritz, VoPham, Wright and Vetter, Daylight saving time and traffic accident risk (PubMed 32008905), checked November 2026.
- IANA, Time Zone Database release history (releases 2026b to 2026f) and its northamerica data file, checked November 2026.
- Government of Alberta, Alberta's new time system (ABT), checked November 2026.
- Government of Manitoba, Manitoba will move to permanent daylight saving time (September 17, 2026), checked November 2026.
- NIST, Daylight Saving Time (DST), checked November 2026.
- Merit Home Furniture's live nightstand listings, prices and store lists, read November 1, 2026, and the owners' Duncan delivery and pickup terms.
Setting up a bedroom for BC's new time, through our Duncan store
Merit's Duncan store is at 107 Ingram St and opens Monday to Saturday, 9 to 5, on the same Pacific time as everything else here now. The nightstands and beds there are display models, and most pieces are ordered for you, so a call ahead tells you what's set up to look at. Delivery from Duncan is $150 across the Island with setup and assembly, and pickup at the store is free. How we book Duncan delivery times is set out on Merit's delivery page. If you're matching a nightstand to a bed, bring the height of the mattress top.
For the rest of the room, our guides to nightstands, dressers and beds sit beside the mattress, pillow and bedding guides. The bed frames and storage beds we list and the mattresses on our listings show which store carries each one.