In the coming weeks, leaves will fall, plants will shrivel, temperatures will sink and Americans will experience growing dread over the unpleasant experience that awaits us in November. No, not the presidential election — the end of daylight saving time.
Early on the day after Halloween, the nation will shift to what is inaccurately known as standard time, though it applies for only about four months of the year. The vast majority of us will have to reset clocks, adjust sleep times, endure mild symptoms of jet lag and get used to the sudden early onset of darkness. Then, in March, we will have to switch back in another round of disruption and aggravation.
It doesn’t have to be this way. If there is anything we’ve learned from this routine, it’s that we can structure and manipulate time to suit our needs. The clock, after all, is a human invention.
Within the U.S., daylight saving time has never won universal assent. Hawaii and Arizona don’t use it, though it does apply on that chunk of Arizona reserved for the Navajo Nation. Indiana used to be a bizarre hodge-podge seemingly designed to drive residents and visitors to the brink of madness.
In 2006, the Associated Press noted, the state had “77 counties observing Eastern time but not changing clocks; five on Eastern time unofficially observing daylight-saving time; and 10 on Central time that observed daylight-saving time.”
There were a lot of missed appointments, late arrivals and panic attacks.
Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott think the regular switchovers are not worth the trouble. They’ve introduced a bill, the Sunshine Protection Act, to make daylight savings time permanent everywhere year-round. The Florida legislature is one of a dozen that have passed legislation to use it year-round, but federal law forbids any state from doing so.
Their measure would not literally protect sunshine, which will be present for the same interval every 24 hours regardless of what your clock says. Nor would it “save” daylight; it would merely shift it, in effect, from one time of day to another.
Daylight saving time was made year-round in 1974, during the energy crisis, to reduce gasoline consumption, which it apparently did. But the experiment was scrapped because it appeared to increase the number of kids being hit by cars on their way to school.
The mass of evidence, however, indicates that we’d be better off if we extended daylight savings time to 12 months. In 2007, Law professors Steve Calandrillo of the University of Washington and Dustin Buehler of the University of Arkansas made a comprehensive study of the data and concluded the change would be a net boon.
Among the benefits they cite: fewer traffic fatalities involving either pedestrians or vehicle occupants, less energy use thanks to a decline in peak electricity demand, reduced crime and, contrary to myth, no change in the number of schoolchildren killed on their way to school. If morning darkness is perceived to pose a danger to kids in some places, schools could push back their start times an hour.
As Calandrillo told me by email, “99% of the population is awake in the early evening at sunset and would benefit from an extra hour of sunlight then. On the contrary, only approximately half of the population is awake at sunrise (sometimes higher, sometimes lower, depending on the time of year), so adding an extra hour of sun in the early morning only benefits half the population.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, he notes, has only magnified the appeal of perpetual daylight saving time. A lot of people who now work remotely can sleep later than they did when they were commuting. Kids who attend virtual classes don’t have to stand on dark streets waiting for buses.
Even if permanent daylight savings time merely shifted crime and car wrecks from one time of day to another, it would at least eliminate the low-level turmoil that sweeps the country twice each year. We do our bodies no favors by making them spring forward and fall back. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a statement last month recommending doing away with this hybrid system of keeping time.
On Nov. 1, we are scheduled to repeat an exasperating ritual that serves no good purpose. We should make it the last time.
Steve Chapman blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman.
Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13.
There were a lot of missed appointments, late arrivals and panic attacks.
Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott think the regular switchovers are not worth the trouble. They've introduced a bill, the Sunshine Protection Act, to make daylight savings time permanent everywhere year-round. The Florida legislature is one of a dozen that have passed legislation to use it year-round, but federal law forbids any state from doing so.
Their measure would not literally protect sunshine, which will be present for the same interval every 24 hours regardless of what your clock says. Nor would it "save" daylight; it would merely shift it, in effect, from one time of day to another.
Daylight saving time was made year-round in 1974, during the energy crisis, to reduce gasoline consumption, which it apparently did. But the experiment was scrapped because it appeared to increase the number of kids being hit by cars on their way to school.
The mass of evidence, however, indicates that we'd be better off if we extended daylight savings time to 12 months. In 2007, Law professors Steve Calandrillo of the University of Washington and Dustin Buehler of the University of Arkansas made a comprehensive study of the data and concluded the change would be a net boon.
Among the benefits they cite: fewer traffic fatalities involving either pedestrians or vehicle occupants, less energy use thanks to a decline in peak electricity demand, reduced crime and, contrary to myth, no change in the number of schoolchildren killed on their way to school. If morning darkness is perceived to pose a danger to kids in some places, schools could push back their start times an hour.
As Calandrillo told me by email, "99% of the population is awake in the early evening at sunset and would benefit from an extra hour of sunlight then. On the contrary, only approximately half of the population is awake at sunrise (sometimes higher, sometimes lower, depending on the time of year), so adding an extra hour of sun in the early morning only benefits half the population."
The COVID-19 pandemic, he notes, has only magnified the appeal of perpetual daylight saving time. A lot of people who now work remotely can sleep later than they did when they were commuting. Kids who attend virtual classes don't have to stand on dark streets waiting for buses.
Even if permanent daylight savings time merely shifted crime and car wrecks from one time of day to another, it would at least eliminate the low-level turmoil that sweeps the country twice each year. We do our bodies no favors by making them spring forward and fall back. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a statement last month recommending doing away with this hybrid system of keeping time.
On Nov. 1, we are scheduled to repeat an exasperating ritual that serves no good purpose. We should make it the last time.
Steve Chapman blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman.
Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13.
In the south where I live , I would rather we stay with the fall back time . It’s so hot in the summer that most of are in the house under air condition , that it really does not benefit us to have the extra hour . But getting that extra hour in the morning is great ! And the west and is the same .I pray ever year they will leave it along to standard time .
Do away with DST,use standard time all year!
Amen!
Question….Why is it a FEDERAL LAW? Make the permanent change. Nationwide.
I don’t care which one we stick with, as long as we stick with one! Pleeease….
I disagree. I don’t know where you live but around here the sun would come up at 4:43 am EST in the summer and at 8:20 am EDT in the winter. Those times are too early and too late respectively and that’s the reason we switch the clocks!
Actually the reason we switched the clocks was due to agrarian society of the USA. If you live in northern MN or ND then it does not matter much as the winter total daylight is many hours less than if you live in Miami or even San Diego. In the summer in the far north it gets dark at 10PM. I won’t even address Alaska, which is a horse of a different color.
The entire idea had two uses. To adjust for the farmers and to adjust to save fuel and electricity. We now know that the second purpose is FALSE and agrarian society does not care about the clock, they start when they NEED to start.
Therefore the entire purpose is MOOT. Time to get rid of variable clock time.
BTW, if HI can be on set time then how can a Federal law apply elsewhere? That is INSANITY altogether.
Get up and go to bed as the sun does.
I just don’t like my kids going to school in the dark and coming home in the dark. Everyone is so depressed already with all the COVID … we older people and. Our younger people need time in the daylight to spend time together.
Since the COVID, there is NO time to spend together as you might be arrested just like some state are arresting individuals who attend church. That begin said, I do agree that we need to find one time for the entire year and stop changing it twice a year as everyone’s system has to change to fit something that should never have been started.
This is truly one of the stupidest ideas I’ve heard lately. By December much of the country the sun wouldn’t be coming up until 8:20 am. Millions of us would be going to work in freezing temperatures, blowing snow and total darkness. Since the sun would then set at 5:30 pm, we’d get to drive home in darkness too. Workers would never see the sun Monday thru Friday for weeks. That’s why. As it is DST lasts too long. It should start in April and end in October just like it did 30 years ago.
We could stick with one. We could split the difference and fall back thirty minutes and stay there! Most importantly stop changing the time twice per year!
Stay on daylight savings time and not change at all? Yes.
That 30 minute idea just will NOT work. The entire GLOBE including all airlines, ships and military use Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and offset by the HOUR, 24 hours around the globe. It would be too complex to have a 30 minute offset from the Global Standard. Total confusion would be the result.
IF one suggested that, then why not change clocks every minute of difference from GMT? Literally every city east to west could be in a different time zone. Hell, even the same city might have a couple time zones within a few minutes.
Going off of DST is utterly ridiculous. Early darkness is depressing!
Park it and then leave it the heck alone, up it back it , LEAVE IT BE.
This was an asinine condition instituted during WW2 that never was productive of increasing work efficiency. It should have been scrapped right after but no congress bill has ever made it to do so. The inertia of our congress is appalling.
Daylight savings time does not save any time.It
Does not help any person.Daylight savings time needs to be eliminated
I’ve always hated daylight savings time. Have to adjust twice a year and it takes weeks to adjust. I’d rather leave it alone. I wish it would be left alone at the normal time. Again, I hate daylight savings time. 😡😡😡😡
So we can remember to change the batteries in our smoke alarms, that’s why.
If humans would stop attempting to control something they can’t, we could be living in a standard time, that is perfect for the human body.
God set the universe in motion & the day & night has been perfect for the body. Yet, some ignorant power hungry individuals want to change God’s plan.
Leave it alone & allow our bodies to operate with perfect time. I never heard about multiple suicides, deaths, heart attacks, severe depression, etc., when we lived with standard time.
Yes, please leave it one way or the other.
I like DST, it marks a shift in the season. However, I do not understand how/why it has been extended. It used to be few months which made more sense to me.
We should go back to Standard Time(or fall back time if you prefer), and stay there. Daylight Savings Time is not what
nature intended. At 12:00pm the sun should be directly overhead. God’s plan is always better than man’s.
Ditto!!!
Easy solution. Get up when the sun is up. You are welcome. Glad to help.
Go to work when the sun is at say 20 degrees or whatever meets your needs.
Livestock doesn’t read clocks. They read the sun.
Use GMT many already do. Why do you care what a clock indicates.
Nature didn’t INTEND anything.
Let’s settle on one or the other. This clock changing needs to end! Some congressman or senator reading these posts please introduce legislation to end this madness. Please!
Get rid of it. Revert back or permanent DST . Just make it one or the other!!!!
I’ve always hated daylight savings time. Have to adjust twice a year and it takes weeks to adjust. I’d rather leave it alone. I wish it would be left alone at the normal time. Again, I hate daylight savings time. 😡😡😡😡
It sure would be nice not to change a clock. I hope it happens.
This is an inconvience that should be scrapped as not good for the human body’ especially elderly ones.
Mine is upset for over a week The majority of people that I talk to want it to end. I definitely vote for letting
the country stay on EST
Day light savings time was designed to conserve energy. I can debunk that theory. Energy companies buy their electricity in bulk. If you are like my wife and I are, we have to conserve to make ends meet. We set thermostat at 86 during the summer, use ceiling fans during day and night time. During the winter we set the thermostat at 69 and try to not get too cold. At first we kept our bills down but they started going back up. We even sealed our windows with plastic sheeting during winter to stop wind coming in. My point is this. Power companies charge you more when you conserve because they lose money. As I stated they buy power in bulk and if you conserve they use money. To Hell with this stupid day lights saving time. Return to God’s time and stop messing around with what is natural. Rubio and the other idiots can go straight to Hell.
I am all for it. Since Trump has decided he has the power to do whatever he wants, why doesn’t he just do it? It would be a real accomplishment that he can brag about. Might even get him a few votes.
Trump has never said or done that or acted that way. In fact Obama wrote more Executive Orders than any president by far….maybe 2X or so. Many of them were challenged and found to be ILLEGAL. As far as I know Trump has ONLY issued Executive Orders to UPHOLD the LAW, which is REQUIRED of a President according to the Constitution.
However, POTUS CAN and should ORDER the MILITARY to use GMT standard time offset by the hour geographically. He can do that without any issue andCongress has ZERO say in it. This means that IF congress wants the nation to be on the same time as the military it MUST change the rules to match.
Perfect solution.
Daylight Saving Time is only benefiting retail merchants. And it is harmful to children physically, mentally and health wise.
Daylight Savings Time is just another way man has failed in an attempt to have control over nature. We need to live by nature’s timeline, which we cannot even accurately measure. When we attempt to control nature, we lose control of ourselves and our own lives. Go natural design.
My opinion is, the best answer to this moving of the clocks twice a year, is to stop doing it, but I think the best solution would be to move the clocks this November, back only a half hour and leave it that way forever. That would satisfy both sides of the question.
Can’t happen. This would be too complex for international shipping, military, airlines etc. The Standard is GMT and is set by HIGH NOON in Greenwich England. Therefore the entire Globe runs from that basis, offset an hour for 1/24 of the circumference of the globe at latitude. This is the standard. We just need to go back to it.
In other words this was. a LEGISLATED CONSTRUCT that needs to end.
I don’t like having to change the clocks twice a year, and the need to get used to it. Just leave it the same. I don’t see why that couldn’t be done. If it’s a Federal thing, then vote it out!!
get rid of day light savings time. it was a stupid idea
AMEN!! Agree with all this written here. Have been writing letters to stop this for years. Am hoping this will change before I die! My medication alterations affect my body like blood pressure changes. Also,takes at least three days to recover from these changes.
daylight savings time year round.
Shifting our clock time is irritating and disgusting in addition to wasting a lot of peoples time
I recall a radio announcer citing a clock store changing 3000? clocks twice a year. DISGUSTING.
What difference does it make what a clock shows? We get up go to bed by the sun and personal needs.
Set our time ONCE and leave it alone.
George