Daylight saving time will return this coming Sunday, March 10, 2024, meaning one less hour of sleep for Americans for the sake of one more hour of sunshine in the evening. However, with Mexico abolishing daylight saving time in 2022 and nine other countries ending seasonal time changes in the last decade alone, according to Pew Research Center, Americans have questioned whether the disorientation that comes about when the clock shifts twice a year is worth any potential benefits, like the energy conservation time change was implemented for in 1918. While recent events in many states’ legislation have shown a great possibility that seasonal time changes will end in the United states in the coming years, this question still remains in Americans’ minds: is standard or daylight saving time the most worthy of becoming permanent?
As of now, federal law allows states only to use standard time year-round, and Hawaii has taken advantage of this, as well as the majority of Arizona. However, recent years have seen a push for states to be able to use daylight saving time permanently. This idea gained traction when the Sunshine Protection Act, which was introduced to the House and Senate in March of 2023, proposed that daylight saving time should be used all year by the United States by law. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who introduced the bill, recently said in a statement featured on his website, that the Sunshine Protection Act would “end this stupid practice of changing our clocks back and forth”. No advancements of this bill have been made in 2024. In contrast, Eleven U.S. states have recently pushed for standard time to become permanent in their territories.
The main argument against daylight saving time is that the loss of sleep Americans experience when the clock “springs forward” has a negative effect on health due to its disruption of the body’s natural, circadian rhythm. A survey conducted by The American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2019 showed that 55% of Americans felt more tired after the switch to DST. Despite this, many people would much prefer to have the extra hour of sunshine in the evenings to spend on sports and other activities. Criminal activity has also shown to reduce after daylight saving time takes effect each year, according to research reported by The Review of Economics and Statistics, which would save the money lost annually due to robberies.
Whether you love it or hate it, daylight saving time will remain in effect this year, but be prepared for future modifications of time change in the United States.
