Stop The Harmful Time-Changing Ritual

Except for the wise people of Arizona and Hawaii, who have year-round standard time, Americans were once again forced to “spring forward” and lose an hour of sleep on Sunday morning. 

This practice, known as daylight-saving time, gives Americans more time in the evening to enjoy sunlight. This helps owners of golf courses, tennis courts, and other outdoor entertainment venues. Conversely, it also forces parents to drive their children to school in the dark. 

With the time change, accidents increase, as do health-related issues. Losing an hour of sleep disrupts our “body clocks.”  As William Shughart, II writes in the Miami Herald, daylight-saving time misaligns “our human body clocks with morning sunlight, thereby disrupting circadian rhythms and causing the spikes in heart attacks, strokes, depression, and other health problems observed in the days following the one-hour spring and fall time shifts.” 

These negative health consequences were verified in a 2008 study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, which identified an increase in heart attacks in the three days following the implementation of daylight-saving time.

Heart attacks are not the only way Americans are dying due to daylight-saving time. In 2020, exhaustive research by professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder determined that there is a 6% increase in fatal automobile accidents in the week following the switch to daylight-saving time. The researchers examined 732,000 automobile accidents over a two-decade period and determined that the accidents caused by daylight-saving time led to the loss of 28 additional lives each year. These are lives that are needlessly lost due to a tradition that has outlived its usefulness. 

In 2009, a study was done by researchers at Michigan State University for the Journal of Applied Psychology. It noted that daylight-saving time led to not only a loss of sleep, but also additional workplace injuries. Along with heart attacks, accidents, and workplace injuries, there is undoubtedly a loss of work productivity in the aftermath of forced clock changes and losing an hour of sleep. 

Currently, standard time is in place for only four months, from November to March, and we have daylight-saving time for the rest of the year. Prior to 1918, standard time was used year-round. During World War I and World War II, daylight-saving time was implemented as an “energy-saving measure.” It was made permanent in 1966 with the passage of the Uniform Time Act. Americans have been suffering from this unnecessary bi-annual time adjustment ever since. 

In 1974, America experimented with permanent daylight-saving time for ten months. Eventually, the public turned against it. As Shughart notes,  “it quickly lost favor after predawn accidents killed or injured several schoolchildren,” and it became referred to as “daylight disaster time.” The national popularity for daylight-saving time plunged from 79% to only 42%, so it was abruptly discontinued. 

For over five decades, the issue has been continually debated throughout the country and in Congress. Several bills have been introduced to make daylight-saving time permanent. For states to adopt daylight-saving time, congressional legislation is needed; however, the Uniform Time Act allows states to join Arizona and Hawaii and permanently adopt standard time. 

Last year, the Sunshine Protection Act was blocked in the U.S. Senate by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR). He claimed that permanent daylight-saving time would turn winter into a “dark and dismal time” for “millions of Americans.” 

According to Cotton, in Arkansas, the sun would not rise until 8:30 a.m., “an absurdly late hour.” During the winter, sunrise will be even later in Seattle, at 9 a.m., in Grand Rapids, Michigan, “as late as 9:15 a.m., and in Williston, North Dakota, sunrise would approach 9:45 a.m.” 

At one point, 140 nations adopted daylight-saving time, but, today that number has decreased to approximately 70. Although there are many reasons for the reduction, such as the hassle of changing clocks, the health benefits of standard time are indisputable. Dr. Karin Johnson, Professor of Neurology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and Vice President of Save Standard Time, believes “morning light is what's really critical for setting our circadian rhythms each day.” She believes that with the sun overhead at noon, “students, drivers, and practically everyone else function better year-round.” 

Agreeing with Johnson is Dr. Kenneth Wright, Director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado. He cites the increased automobile accidents, heart attacks, and strokes in the aftermath of “springing forward” every March. In Dr. Wright’s view, “Based on the evidence for our health and well-being and safety, the best option for us as a country now is to choose to go to permanent standard time.” 

Even without daylight-saving time, days will lengthen in the spring and summer, giving Americans more time for outdoor activities. The deaths, injuries, and lack of productivity are totally unnecessary. It may have been a promising idea when it was implemented in 1918; however, not in 2026. 

For most Americans, changing clocks twice a year is both inconvenient and pointless. The answer is to make standard time year-round and end this clock-changing ritual.