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    • Why does Indiana still have daylight saving time?
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    Why does Indiana still have daylight saving time?

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    Early Sunday morning, Hoosiers mark the end of Daylight Savings Time by changing their clocks. This is why we have DST, which it still supports, and why medical experts believe it is a bad practice that harms public health.

    When does daylight saving time end in Indiana this year?

    Daylight Savings Time officially ends at 2am on Sunday, which means you’ll need to set your clock back an hour before going to sleep late on Saturday/Sunday. “Slumping” means getting an hour of sleep that night or getting up earlier. All of Indiana, with the exception of twelve northwest and southwest counties, including Evansville, will be on Eastern Standard Time after the change.

    Who Supports Daylight Saving Time in Indiana and Why?

    The leading proponents of changing the clocks in Indiana come from the business community.

    “Our organization was and remains a strong supporter of implementing Daylight Savings Time in Indiana,” said Vanessa Green Sinders, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

    “Recognizing daylight saving time makes Indiana’s operating hours more predictable,” she said via email. “When the state failed to observe daylight saving time, Hoosier businesses often experienced confusion among customers, suppliers and business partners in other parts of the country and the world. There is no doubt that Daylight Saving Time has a positive impact on Indiana’s economy.”

    Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun supports year-round daylight saving time, which would eliminate changing the clocks twice a year, his campaign said via email this week.

    “I think most Americans would like that idea,” Braun told Newsmax in 2022.

    Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick isn’t so sure.

    “While Jennifer is very much looking forward to the extra hour of sleep on Sunday, she has not yet heard a consensus on Daylight Savings Time and is not prioritizing it in the campaign,” her spokeswoman Mila Myles said via email.

    The U.S. Congress should take action to implement any changes. The office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, did not respond to an email message.

    Doctors: Daylight saving time is bad for your mental and physical health

    The American Medical Association has urged the nation not to interfere with clocks.

    ‘Don’t jump forward. Don’t back down. Don’t even touch the clock unless the power goes out,” the association says on its website.

    “The U.S. should eliminate seasonal changes in favor of a national, fixed time year-round,” the AMA said, and is supported by organizations including the American Academy of Cardiovascular Sleep Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians and the National Safety Council. .

    The AMA said changing the clock causes more heart attacks, missed medical appointments and more emergency room and hospital visits.

    A 2020 Danish study found that daylight saving time brought a higher risk of heart attacks, injuries, mental and behavioral disorders, and immune-related diseases.

    Spencer Dawson, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University, said daylight saving time creates a mismatch between the time on the clock and the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which aligns with the sun.

    Dawson, a licensed psychologist certified in behavioral sleep medicine, said forcing a time change is particularly harmful to children and adolescents. Children have to get up much earlier than normal and often have to stand at the bus stop in the dark, which increases the risk of car accidents.

    Adolescents already have a natural biological delay in their circadian rhythm, which makes them night owls, he said. (They’re not rebellious, Dawson said.) Instead of making adolescents wake up later, daylight saving time forces them to wake up even earlier, he said.

    “If we got rid of daylight saving time, kids would get tired at a time when it makes a lot more sense,” Dawson says.

    And, he said, for Hoosiers the impact is worse than for most others because Indiana is on the western edge of the Eastern time zone, meaning some areas in Indiana experience solar noon — when the sun reaches its highest point — during daylight saving time. around 2 p.m

    How should you prepare for the time change?

    Both Dawson and Dr. Drew Watters, an emergency room physician at IU Health Bloomington, urged people to adjust their sleep cycle days before the clock goes out, perhaps in 15 or 20 minute increments.

    Watters also suggested minimizing early morning commitments for a few days after the change.

    IU Health said people should be extra vigilant when driving at night and wear bright, reflective clothing and carry flashlights when walking at night.

    To help people get a good night’s sleep, Watters said they should “put the phone aside at least an hour before bed.”

    What is the history of daylight saving time in Indiana?

    Daylight saving time was first introduced in the US in 1918 during World War I, but was abandoned after the war. Daylight saving time returned during World War II, but was abandoned again after the end of the war.

    By the late 1940s, the use of daylight saving time – known as fast time – had become popular in cities. Indiana was officially in the Central Time Zone, but some communities chose to follow fast time year-round, essentially joining the Eastern Time Zone.

    In 1949, the Indiana Senate quietly passed a bill that would keep the state on Central Time and ban daylight saving time. When the bill reached the House, lawmakers representing cities, which generally favored fast time, battled lawmakers from agricultural areas, where changing the clock in the first place was considered “unnatural” and “unhealthy for cows.”

    The Uniform Time Act of 1966 introduced a system of uniform daylight saving time across the country.

    In 1972, Indiana adopted a model proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation in which most of Indiana remained on Eastern Standard Time year-round, while areas in Gary and Evansville remained Central Time and followed daylight time in the summer .

    That model persisted for more than thirty years until Governor Mitch Daniels argued that Indiana’s lack of daylight saving time was hurting the state’s economy. The Indiana House passed a measure to implement daylight saving time in Indiana in 2005, by the narrowest of margins.

    Do farmers support daylight saving time?

    No.

    “I don’t see what difference it makes,” said Martha Miller, director of the Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation District.

    “Farmers work from sunrise to sunset, regardless of the time associated with a clock,” said Miller, who is also a local rancher.

    Does daylight saving time save energy?

    Not really.

    A 2017 analysis of 44 studies concluded that daylight saving time “does not save significant energy.”

    Instead, William Shugart, a business professor at Utah State University, estimated in 2007 that the time it takes to change the clock twice a year alone leaves Americans paying $1.7 billion annually in lost opportunities.

    The Indianapolis Star contributed to this report.

    Boris Ladwig can be reached at [email protected].

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