This is an opinion piece. The views are the author’s own.
Clocks went back an hour on Sunday, Nov. 1. Again. Congress has talked about ending the twice-a-year ritual for years, and this year the talk got further than usual. It still ended the way it always does: with all of us fumbling for the oven and car clock settings. Here is my plea to lawmakers, and to anyone tempted by the cheerful label on the bill in question: stop changing the clocks, and make the clock we keep standard time.
Where Things Stand
The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act on July 14, according to FOX 29 Philadelphia. The vote was 308 to 117, per the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The bill would make daylight saving time permanent. The most recent reporting I found had it sitting in a Senate committee that had not voted on it, and the clocks changed anyway.
The same reporting says 19 states have approved legislation to go to permanent daylight saving time if Congress allows it. Federal law currently lets states pick only permanent standard time, as Hawaii and most of Arizona have done.
Why “Permanent Daylight Time” Is the Wrong Fix
Everyone agrees the switching is a nuisance. The argument is over which clock to freeze. Permanent daylight time sounds sunny: more light after work, all year. But it means winter mornings stay dark late into the day.
A Deseret News report from 2023 noted that under permanent daylight time, Michigan would see winter sunrises after 9 a.m., and New England would get daylight from roughly 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. That is a lot of kids waiting for school buses in the dark.
Sleep doctors have a bigger objection. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says permanent daylight time would misalign people’s internal clocks and could lead to chronic sleep deprivation. It also points to traffic and pedestrian risks, especially for children walking to school in the dark. The group prefers permanent standard time, which it says “better aligns with our natural circadian rhythms.”
The Convenience Argument Is Real, but Small
I understand the appeal of a long summer-style evening in January. Retailers and golf courses have lobbied for it for years, and plenty of people simply like light after dinner. But an extra hour of evening light is a lifestyle preference. A body clock out of step with the sun is a health question, and when the two collide I would give the health question the edge.
There is also the matter of what we are fixing. The pain point is the change. Polling cited in 2023 found about six in 10 Americans wanted the clock changes to stop, while only 21% wanted to keep the current system. Ending the switch is popular. Choosing the wrong clock to freeze would swap one annoyance for a permanent one.
What I Would Do
- Make the clock we keep standard time, nationwide, and let that settle.
- If states want an exception, let them argue for it with a full winter of sunrise data in hand, not a slogan.
- Whatever Congress chooses, decide it before the next spring change, not after.
Here is the part that annoys me most: nobody argues for the current system. We keep it by default, because the better options are tangled up in a fight over which version of “fixed” to pick. The Senate has time. Use it to pick the clock that matches the sun, not the one that sells the best.
For another small daily annoyance worth fixing, see my case for batching phone notifications by default.
More on Contoh
- Phones Should Deliver Notifications in Batches by Default
- Halloween Night Is Riskier for Young Pedestrians. Here’s What the Research Says, and How to Stay Safe
- Just 10 Minutes of Daily Exercise Was Linked to Deeper Sleep in a Study of Young Adults