Australians eyeing the loss of a precious hour’s sleep this weekend may be pleased to learn research has ruled out daylight saving contributing to major mental health issues.

An international study involving researchers from Swinburne University found switching the clocks to summer time had no clear or consistent effect on significant mental health episodes.

But Swinburne’s Ben Bullock said it remained unclear if moving the clocks forward could have a more minor impact on mood.

“One of the strengths, but also a limitation of our study was we looked at serious mental health episodes, so people who are presenting to hospitals,” Bullock said.

“People might already also know every time they transition to daylight savings, we often find a little bit of an effect on our mood or our sleep.”

Daylight saving’s health effects have long been the subject of speculation, amid concerns about sleep loss and the increased risk of strokes and heart attacks.

The clocks jump forward an hour – from 2am to 3am – in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT on Sunday.

In the US, President Donald Trump is leading a push to make daylight saving permanent, labelling the twice-yearly clock changes “inconvenient” and “costly”.

Bullock said the benefits of summer time, particularly from getting outside as much as possible during the day, outweighed its potential downfalls.

“Given the fact it’s only a minority of people that are actually affected by daylight saving, the focus should be more on helping the minority of people adjust rather than changing things for the majority of people,” he said.

Adjustments include changing your sleep schedule in the days leading up to the clock shift and getting outside in the sunlight on the first Sunday morning.

“That’s the … strongest way to reset your your body clock,” Bullock said.

“Also just be gentle on yourself, maybe don’t make big plans for the Sunday.”

In 2024, a world-first study by Adelaide’s Flinders University into the long-term impact of daylight saving found there was no significant evidence it caused a loss of sleep.

It did find that some people lost sleep in the first few weeks after the clocks changed, but said the impact was no worse than jet lag.

“Most of us have body clocks that tick over a little bit more slowly than the 24-hour rotation of the Earth that makes our 24-hour light-dark cycle,” university sleep experts Emeritus Professor Leon Lack and Dr Gorica Micic said.

“That means most people, particularly evening types, tend to delay their bedtime and wake time, especially given the chance on weekends.”

Each time someone sleeps in, their body clock is delayed by 10 to 20 minutes.

By the time Sunday night rolls around, it can be difficult to get to sleep because of gradual shift – and that can mean waking up tired on Monday morning.

“Our research has shown that this results in shorter sleeps on Sunday and Monday nights and more tiredness on Monday and Tuesday and may contribute to the typical Monday morning ‘blues’,” Lack and Micic said.

Daylight saving ends on April 4, 2027.

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-AAP