Final spring forward? Permanent daylight saving time gains momentum
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
According to a YouGov poll by CBS News published last year, 80% of Americans support doing away with the changing of the clocks.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
An extra cup of coffee may be on Sunday’s to-do list, when Americans spring forward into daylight saving time. While we collectively lose an hour of sleep, DST extends sunlight hours into the evening, and some lawmakers, led by Sen. Marco Rubio, are lobbying to adopt daylight saving time permanently.
When the clocks march dutifully ahead an hour this Sunday, March 12, from standard time into daylight saving time, it may mark the nation’s final spring forward.
Earlier this month, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio presented the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023, which would shift one hour of sunlight from morning to evening, allowing Americans to live in a permanent state of DST.
The act is neither partisan nor unprecedented. Fourteen state senators on both sides of the aisle cosponsored the bill, and since Rubio first proposed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2018, the idea’s gained momentum with legislators and the general public.
According to a YouGov poll by CBS News published last year, 80% of Americans support doing away with the changing of the clocks. Adopting permanent daylight saving time (which we’re springing into at 2 a.m. March 12), got the greenlight from 33% of those polled.
Dr. Larry Stratton, professor of ethics and constitutional law and leader of the Stover Center at Waynesburg University, is among those who support a permanent daylight saving time.
“Time is a sensitive thing. It does get to be confusing sometimes. Your cellphone will change, but you’ve got to change your watch. It’s like an unnecessary inconvenience,” Stratton said. “I’ve always been sympathetic to making it universal. I like the daylight saving time; I think it’s good for society to have more activities into the evening.”
America’s relationship to daylight saving time is fickle: DST was first adopted in 1916, and during World War II, President Roosevelt rid the clocks of standard time entirely. Though Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, parts of the U.S. have never fallen back and sprung forward with the rest of us. Americans spent 1974-75 on perpetual daylight saving time, which Stratton vividly recalls.
“In the early ’70s, and I remember this, President Nixon signed (permanent DST) as a conservation measure,” Stratton said. “I remember that it was very dark in the morning. I walked to school. That was a challenge. Of course, I liked the longer time in the evening. At this point, in December, it’s hard to do anything after work.”
Longer evenings forever may not be far off. Though Sen. Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 passed in the Senate but didn’t make it through the House, Stratton believes there’s a chance the act will be adopted this year.
“We’ve had a few periods where it (daylight saving time) has gone all around the calendar. The Senate passed the resolution a few years ago. The political movement toward Sen. Rubio to make daylight saving time permanent, it seems to have some momentum,” he said. “If the Senate already did it, then it’s likely to pass there. In this year, sort of between big election years, it’s one example of bipartisanship that may manifest itself.”
The Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 does not aim to change time zones, the amount of sunlight hours in a day, or mandate those who do not currently observe DST, like American Samoa, adhere to the clock change. It would simply lengthen evening’s light.
When daylight saving time goes into effect at 2 a.m. Sunday for what may well be the last time, folks need only manually change their kitchen appliances and car clocks; cellphones update themselves these days.
And while the clock springs itself ahead an hour, our minds and bodies may need some time to adjust.
“It’s very damaging, so much more so than when we gain an hour,” said Dr. Sean Coyne, assistant professor of psychology at Washington & Jefferson College. “We see this everywhere that does daylight saving; we see an uptick in heart attacks and automobile accidents. It takes a while for us all to adjust. It’s not like clicking a button on our clock. Our body takes a while to adjust our circadian rhythm.”
During daylight saving time, the sun peaks at 1 p.m. instead of noon; roosters crow at the crack of dawn around 5:30 a.m, not 4:30. Light lingers longer into the evening – which sounds wonderful in theory – but jumping forward an hour interrupts the brain’s production of melatonin, which helps regulate sleep, Coyne said. Daylight saving time also takes a toll on our mental speed and reaction times.
“There’s not really an instant fix for this kind of thing,” Coyne said. “If you are one of the types of people who can fall asleep when you want to, going to sleep an hour can sort of buffer (the effects).”
While people yawn a little more Sunday morning or head to bed earlier Saturday night, it’s the fur babies who get lost in the time-change shuffle, laughed Coyne.
“Your pets are going to be really confused when you’re all of a sudden switching schedules,” he said. “They are going to be expecting their walks at a certain time and their dinner at a certain time.”
That certain time, come Sunday, is an hour ahead of schedule, and, said Stratton, may remain that way forevermore.
“I don’t know whether the Biden administration has any opinion about it. It seems to me that any shrewd pollster is going to tell a politician to support this thing,” Stratton said. “The law should not make life more miserable, it should make it easier. That’s a very basic philosophical principle.”