Impact of daylight saving time on physical activity patterns

Srikar Katta, Hayoung Jeong, Will Ke Wang, Alexander Volfovsky, Jessilyn Dunn

Abstract: Daylight Saving Time (DST) remains contentious: some policymakers highlight behavioral benefits, while others emphasize health risks. We estimated the behavioral and physiological impacts of DST using longitudinal Fitbit measures from the NIH All of Us Research Program. Avoiding strict modeling assumptions, we employed a natural difference-in-differences design using Arizona (no DST) as a control against neighboring Mountain Time states (observing DST). Contrary to the common belief, DST transitions produced no net change in total daily steps. Instead, activity was reallocated to other times of day: fall transitions increased morning steps by 202 while reducing evening steps by 180; spring showed the opposite. Importantly, these treatment effects varied by demographics and across data-driven activity phenotypes ("Morning-," "Neutral-," and "Evening Walker"). These disparities suggest that structural factors (e.g., rigid work schedules, perceived safety) may constrain the capacity to flexibly adapt to time shifts for some populations. Physiologically, resting heart rate showed subtle intraday shifts mirroring behavioral changes, though differences were clinically insignificant. Our study provides the first large-scale causal analysis of DST’s influence using continuous wearables data, illustrating how observational data can generate real-world evidence to inform health-relevant policies.