Women, reading matters Stop changing the time! Expert says Daylight Saving Time harms students' health

 By KRISTEN HOLLIDAY

Changing the clocks for Daylight Saving Time affects students’ health and wellbeing, yet moving to permanent Daylight Saving Time will have more serious implications, according to SFU psychol- ogy professor and sleep specialist Ralph Mistlberger.

Clocks will turn back an hour to Standard Time on Nov. 3, but the B.C. government is reconsidering the bi-annual practice.

Each March the clocks are moved forward to Daylight Saving Time to gain more evening light in the spring and summer months; it also means shorter mornings. Clocks are then turned back to Standard Time in autumn.

Daylight is a powerful regulator for the internal clock, which controls hormone levels and affects many other aspects of our lives, says Mistlberger.

“You will see negative health and safety consequences if we go to permanent Daylight Saving Time, and we’re actually going to see it more in young people,” said Mistlberger.

“The earlier you wake students up relative to their internal clock, the worse off they’re going to be. Their ability to pay attention, to process information, working memory, all those things are going to be worse,”

But, Michael Paulyn, a fourthyear business and marketing student at Langara College, is one of the many students who would like to see a permanent switch Daylight Saving Time.

“You’re more up to enjoy 9 p.m. in the summer when the sun is out for longer,” Paulyn said. “You have more fun in the summer and partially spring and fall, so I’d rather keep it to that.”

Results of a recent government survey showed that 93 per cent of British Columbia residents, and 86.6 per cent of students, support a move to permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Gabriella Carvallo, a first-year marketing management student at Langara, likes the current system where the clocks move forward in the Spring.

“We have one extra hour of sun to enjoy after work,” Carvallo said. “I could use that hour. I would like that to stay.

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By LAUREN GARGIULO

Young women with higher levels of reading proficiency at the age of 15 earn more than those with lower levels — mainly because they acquire more educational credentials, leading to higher earnings.

The StatCan study, titled “Does reading proficiency at age 15 affect employment earnings in young adulthood?” was released Oct. 17.

This study used data from another StatCan study “Programme for International Student Assessment/ Youth in Transition Survey (PISA/ YITS)” released in 2000, found that high scores in the PISA test in both men and woman accounted for higher earnings.

Laura Gibson, co-author of the new study, said that the wage gap between men was largely explained by other factors such as parental income, the wage-gap for women was explained by something else.

“Education explains much of the gap in earnings between high-skill and low-skill woman.”

Sandra Enns, a sociology professor at Langara College, believes that factors other than education also account for the wage gap difference between the sexes.

“Men and women go in completely different fields and those fields are paid differently.”

The study does note that higher literacy proficency levels at the age 15 does make a significant impact several years later.

“Skills and educational attainment are closely related. For example, Canadian students with higher literacy skills at age 15 are often more likely to complete high school by age 21 and pursue postsecondary education than their peers with lower literacy skills,” the authors said.

Gibson added that the study continues to help us try and understand the wage gap.

“This study helps to shed light on the complex roll of skills and education in outcomes such as earnings,” Gibson said. “

There may be other factors not measured in this study such as skills acquired later in life.”