Those of you who have followed my posts know that I am a proponent of Daylight Standard Time instead of Daylight Saving Time (note there is actually no plural). Recently a bill was introduced–H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act–which has made its way to the Senate floor for passage and signing by the president (who is in favor of the idea). If passed, the United States would reject a full hour on the normal 24-hour clock and remain at Daylight Saving Time hours permanently. The House passed the bill by a wide enough margin to warrant notice. The next step is for the Senate to approve it for presidential endorsement.
On the other side of the issue is the move to revert permanently to Daylight Standard Time. The Sunshine for Our Kids Act (H.R. 9638) is a challenge enacted on July 8 to call attention to the flaws in the saving time bill.
There is an abundance of information available about the disadvantages of keeping our clocks ahead by one hour. Rather than go into a long list of them, I invite you to look for yourself and be a little question-asker. Inquire in your favorite search engine or AI partner what effect keeping saving time will do to our health and environment. Read some information about the failed experiment of 1974 which tried to keep saving time in place but failed without lasting a year.
A table available online which I will draw attention to provides some insight into what your new normal day will be like under permanent saving time. If you live on the East Coast, your sunrises will occur as early as 6:00 AM in June, but in December your sun would come up at almost 9:00 AM. Sunsets would be as early as 6:00 PM in December but as late as 9:00 PM in late June/early July. Under standard time, you would see sunlight between 5:00 AM and about 7:50 AM all year, and sunsets will vary from 5:00 PM until 8:00 PM. This means that the risk to school children of setting off from home in the dark (which did cause a problem during the 1974 experiment) would not be an issue. Waiting until after 9:00 for total darkness to view fireworks? Not a problem, because they can start sooner.
The arguments seem to come from people who want to do more in the evenings with more daylight, but since when has sunset had a negative effect on evening activities before now? Schedules would not need to change for keeping standard time.
However, the airlines have chimed in, because a permanent leap into skipping a whole hour will be permanently disruptive to pilots, staff and passengers. And to be brief, health-wise the change in circadian rhythms is detrimental to your health. There is an entire practice devoted to this aspect of human wellbeing known as chronobiology. Our bodies function on a 24-hour clock, because our planet runs on a 24-hour clock. This has been a fact since ancient times when great minds studied the heavens and recorded what they saw, turning their findings into what our daily lives depend upon for optimal living.
The number of heart attacks and strokes which rise during the spring ahead/fall back weekends will decline. So will accidents related to the sudden one-hour difference in drivetime light or night.
All of the evidence points to a simple logic. We are given 24 hours in a day, so we should use it as is. Our time zones make it easy to follow, and our bodies will sync naturally and forever if we keep to what nature intended.
The best way to promote the new bill is to drop a quick email to your state senator. You can be brief: just say you want permanent daylight standard time. We have no better opportunity in our modern history to set things to the way they should have always been.
It’s time to no longer mess with time.
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