Daylight saving time reveals the difference between ‘spring forward’ and ‘fall back’
By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Clocks will jump an hour earlier at 2 a.m. Sunday during daylight saving time for most of the US, creating a 23-hour day that throws off sleep schedules, throws the morning dog into darkness and inspires millions of complaints.
Even though polls show that many people do not like the system that has most Americans changing the clocks twice a year, the political efforts needed to change the system have not been successful because opinions on the issue and its potential effects are so divided.
RELATED: California voted in 2018 to stop changing the clock. So why do we still do it?
Do you want to make daylight saving time permanent? That would mean the sun rises around 9 a.m. in Detroit for a while in the winter. Prefer to stay at a regular time throughout the year? That would mean the sun would rise at 4:11 a.m. in Seattle in June.
“There is no law we can make to bend the sun to our will,” said Jay Pea, president of Save Standard Time, an organization dedicated to changing standard time for the better.
Here’s a look at the debate.
Placing a watch on a rotating planet causes a huge headache
Genie Lauren spends her winters in New York City watching the “white-headed” sunrises and sunsets until the sun has set enough to feel like doing anything outside of her house after work – even going to the movies.
“Most of the year we are in daylight savings time,” said a 41-year-old health worker. “Why are we doing this?”
The US has been changing the clock periodically since railroads marked the time zones in 1883. So is most of the world. About 140 countries have had daylight saving time at some point; about half of what many do now.
About 1 in 10 US adults favors the current clock-changing system, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted last year. About half oppose the plan, while another 4 in 10 had no opinion. If they had to choose, most Americans say they would prefer to make daylight saving time permanent, rather than standard time.
A problem for policymakers
As of 2018, 19 states — including much of the South and a swath of states in the northwest of the US — have passed laws requiring permanent daylight saving time.
There’s a catch: Congress would need to pass legislation to allow states to go full daylight saving time, something that existed nationwide during World War II and for an unpopular, brief period in 1974.
The US Senate passed a bill in 2022 to move to permanent daylight saving time. A similar House bill has yet to come up for a vote.
U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, an Alabama Republican who has introduced such a bill every term, said the airline industry, which doesn’t want to clash with planning changes, has been instrumental in persuading lawmakers not to take it up.
U.S. Representative Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, is proposing an alternative.
“Why don’t you divorce the child?” he asked. “Move it 30 minutes to be in the middle of both.”
Steube thinks his bill could get bipartisan support. This change will put the US out of step with most of the world – although India has adopted a similar approach and in Nepal, the time is 15 minutes ahead of India.
Sleep experts prefer more daylight in the morning
Karin Johnson, vice president of the advocacy group Save Standard Time and a professor of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, said standard time — with the sun pointing directly at almost noon — will help students, drivers and everyone else work better year-round.
“Morning light is very important in setting our daily circadian rhythm,” she said.
Kenneth Wright, professor and director of the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at the University of Colorado, said the risk of fatal car crashes, heart attacks and strokes increases in the days following turning the clock forward.
“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 a permanent normal period,” he said.
Obstacles block change
Of all the US states, only Arizona – apart from the Navajo Nation – and Hawaii currently opt out of daylight saving time.
In the past two years, a dozen states have adopted bills to transition to permanent regular time in one house of the legislature, including Virginia in February. A Virginia House committee this week recommended that the issue be put on hold until 2027.
Most of those measures include warnings that the change will only be effective if neighboring countries also do so. For example, Virginia will go to regular time only if Maryland and Washington, DC, do too. That may answer part of the concern of groups including broadcasters who warn of program confusion. It won’t address the concerns of the golf industry, which opposes a full schedule because it would make it harder for people to get in a round in the evening.
Most full-time day loans have similar provisions.
A request to make the districts decide
Scott Yates, a Colorado man who runs the website Lock the Clock, wants the federal government to pass a law to end biannual clock changes in two years.
Under his plan, districts must commit to daylight savings or standard time.
As long as the clock changes continue, Yates has some advice.
“If you are a manager, tell all your employees on Monday that they can come in an hour later,” he said. And if you’re not the boss, tell your boss you think you should come in an hour later on Monday. Sleep to be safe.
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Associated Press writer David A. Lieb in Jefferson City, Missouri, contributed.
