Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered to stop setting clocks one hour back starting from fall 2011.

“I have decided to stop changing the clocks over for winter starting from this fall, and I have given this instruction to the government,” he told young scientists and winners of presidential science and innovations awards 2010.

“When the clocks change over for summer or for winter, people experience a stress and may develop an ailment. So, the unchanged time would have a positive effect,” Medvedev said.

The clock changing over for winter or summer time concerns every person, he said, noting that he had raised the subject in the state of the nation address in 2009.

“We are accustomed to switching to daylight saving time in spring and back in fall and to cursing that custom which disrupts human biorhythms. People are irritated, they either oversleep or wake up too early and do not know how to spend that extra hour. That is not to mention poor cows and other domestic animals, which know nothing about the time change and wonder why milkmaids arrive late,” Medvedev said.

The constant daylight saving time throughout Russia would be useful, he said.

“We will not set our clocks one hour back in fall, but we will experience another unpleasant switch to daylight saving time. We will have one hour of sleep less, but that will be the end to our troubles. We will have a longer period of daylight through the year. I think that would be good for the country. At least, people have asked me to do that many times,” he said.

United Russia proposed to abolish the seasonal time switch in an appeal to Medvedev on February 1.

“The party is receiving plenty of appeals from people, who want the abolition of the seasonal time switch because it causes plenty of health problems. People are complaining about stress, sleep disorders, reduction of labor productivity and frustration, as well as about more serious problems, such as intestinal disorders, high blood pressure and weakening of the immune system,” first deputy head of the party faction, Dr. Tatiana Yakovleva said.

“The negative influence of the seasonal time switch on people’s health is the main argument. It not only deteriorates national health but also results in economic losses, such as sick leaves and additional drug expenditures,” Yakovleva said.

“There are opposite ideas about the time switch in the Russian society,” she said. “Some say that it saves energy and is good for the economy. Others say that human health is harmed.”

“The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences has made an official evaluation of harmful effects of the seasonal time switch on human health. The report said that the number of infarctions increased by 1.5 times, the number of suicides grew by 66%, and the number of ambulance calls grew considerably,” Yakovleva said.

“The effect is the biggest on children and elderly people. They experience stress, sleep disorders, cardiovascular, immune and metabolism problems,” she said.

Nowadays, 110 out of 192 countries adjust their clocks twice a year. Iceland is the only exception in Europe. Countries located near equator never do that, the same as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

Russia started to use daylight saving time in 1981.