The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent throughout the United States The bill, called the Sunshine Protection Act, must now be approved by the Senate before it can become law.
Daylight saving time was first adopted during World War I in an effort to conserve energy, but it didn't become the norm nationwide until the 1960s. Every state except Hawaii and Arizona 'springs forward' one hour in March before 'falling back' an in mid-November.
Hawaii and most of Arizona will not have to conform to daylight saving time. Under the Uniform Time Act of 1966, these states opted out of the twicea- year clock changes and will remain on standard time year-round. Even if pending federal legislation, like the Sunshine Protection Act, passes, these states will remain exempt.
As far back as the 1940s, the majority of people preferred a system that didn’t change time twice a year, though opinions differed as to whether daylight savings or standard time should be permanent.
Most countries don't practice daylight saving time and many of the other nations that once did have abandoned it.
Contrary to its name, daylight saving time doesn't actually create more daylight, it simply adjusts the clocks so an hour of daylight that would normally occur in the early morning instead occurs in the evening. Daylight saving time doesn't actually create more daylight, of course. It simply adjusts the clocks so an hour of daylight that would normally occur in the early morning instead occurs in the evening. Scientists have studied the effects of daylight saving time on our health, public safety, the economy and a wide range of other issues for decades. They generally agree that the problem is the time change itself, creating ripple effects as people's bodies adjust to lost sleep and disruptions to their circadian rhythms.
Isolating the effects of the time change from all the other things that affect health has proven challenging for researchers, but a wide variety of studies have shown an increase in negative health impacts in the days after the clocks change.
The American Heart Association says that scientists 'don't really know exactly' why, but researchers have found a 'modest but significant' increase in heart attacks in the days after the spring time change and a smaller, but still noteworthy, spike in strokes during those same periods.
The time change has also been linked to obesity, in part because it can disrupt normal eating routines when people get hungry at different times of the day.
Researchers at Stanford estimated that adopting permanent standard time all year could result in 300,000 fewer strokes and 2.6 million fewer people with obesity.
The time change has also been linked to an increase in potentially dangerous errors by medical professionals who may be less alert after having their sleep schedules altered.
Some studies suggest that having an extra hour of sunlight in the evening can reduce crime. A 2015 study from the Brookings Institution found a 27% drop in robberies in the evening hour that would otherwise have been dark without daylight saving time.
Both sets of researchers gave a simple explanation: It's harder to commit crimes when the sun is shining and daylight saving time moves sunlight to a time of day when the highest number of people are outside.
Shifting the clocks by an hour logically benefits some businesses, like retail stores and restaurants, but also hurts others particularly certain agricultural industries.
Agricultural tasks heavily depend on the sun. Farmers must wait for the morning dew to evaporate before harvesting hay or certain produce. A later clock time means waiting even longer into the morning for nature to catch up, effectively reducing productive daylight hours.
Additionally, hired farmhands may find themselves waiting an extra hour for morning light during daylight saving time and be forced to adjust their family arrangements and schedules.
The number one reason the U.S. gave up its trial of permanent daylight saving time in the 1970s was due to concerns over road safety, specifically that later sunrises had led to an increase in children being hit by cars on their way to school.
Concerns about car accidents are still a major part of the debate over daylight saving time. Logically, it makes sense that drivers who are driving in the dark might make more mistakes. One study that looked only at fatal crashes found that the spring time change was more dangerous for motorists.
The original basis for daylight saving time was to save electricity during World War I. Permanent daylight saving time was adopted in the '70s, in part to reduce gas consumption during the oil crisis.
Over the decades, researchers have studied a wide range of other effects of daylight saving time. Various studies have found time changes may cause kids to spend more time outside, make TV ratings drop and generally make people less giving.
Eperts widely agree that ending time changes is the most important way to solve the biggest problems caused by daylight saving time and that making it permanent is the wrong approach.
The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and many leading researchers in the field all argue that permanent standard time is the much better solution. Stanford scientists recently found that permanent daylight saving time would only bring about two-thirds of the benefits as permanent standard time.
'When you get light in the morning, it speeds up the circadian cycle. When you get light in the evening, it slows things down,' Jamie Zeitzer, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford said. 'You generally need more morning light and less evening light to keep well synchronized to a 24-hour day.'
A proposal to amend the Sunshine Protection Act so it would establish permanent standard time in accordance with expert guidance was voted down by the House Rules Committee.