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    • States are pushing for legislation to end the time change
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    States are pushing for legislation to end the time change

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    It’s that time again. On Sunday, most Americans will turn their clocks back an hour, and many will renew their semi-annual call to end the practice altogether.

    On November 3, those who have been on daylight saving time for the past eight months will “fall back” and get an hour of sleep. Early birds have an earlier sunrise, but that also means the sun sets an hour earlier.

    For years, the start and end of daylight saving time were accompanied by renewed calls to end it altogether. All but two US states have observed daylight saving time. Some states want to make it permanent, while others have taken steps to make standard time permanent.

    The result is a confusing patchwork of proposed legislation, but no real change because the federal government doesn’t yet allow it. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio this week renewed a call to pass a bill he introduced that would make daylight saving time permanent across the country. The Sunshine Protect Act passed the Senate in 2022 but has failed to make progress in the House of Representatives despite being introduced over multiple legislative sessions.

    “It is time to lock up the clock and stop putting up with the ridiculous and outdated practice of switching our clocks back and forth,” Rubio said.

    Experts say the time changes are detrimental to health and safety, but agree the answer is not permanent daylight saving time.

    “The medical and scientific communities are united … that permanent standard time is better for human health,” said Erik Herzog, professor of biology and neuroscience at Washington University in St. Louis and former president of the Society for Research on Biological. Rhythms.

    Most Americans would prefer to abolish time changes. About 43% want standard time year-round, 32% want permanent daylight saving time and 25% want to stick with the status quo, according to an October 2021 Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll. For now and at least for the foreseeable future, most Americans will continue to endure the jarring time changes that occur twice a year.

    Here’s the deal:

    Which states want to abolish time changes?

    No state can implement permanent daylight saving time unless the U.S. Congress passes a law allowing it first. But several states have passed or are considering legislation to make the switch if Congress takes up the idea.

    States have considered hundreds of pieces of daylight saving time legislation in recent years, including 30 by 2024, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    Oklahoma became the latest state to pass a measure allowing permanent daylight saving time in April, pending approval by Congress.

    Nineteen other states have passed laws or resolutions to switch to daylight saving time year-round, if Congress ever allows it, the NCSL said. They are: Colorado, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, Idaho, Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina, Utah, Wyoming, Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and Florida. In California, voters approved a ballot initiative to allow their legislature to pass such a law.

    Some of those states have made the provision conditional on neighboring states doing the same. Idaho, which is split into two different time zones, passed a measure that would make the switch to daylight saving time in the northern part of the state only if neighboring Washington does so. Delaware’s law would only implement year-round daylight saving time if Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland also do so, Delaware Public Media reported.

    RETURN: Summer time ends here in 2024

    Why don’t Arizona and Hawaii change their clocks?

    Only two states and some territories never have to set their clocks forward or back.

    Federal law prohibits states from establishing permanent daylight saving time, but Arizona (except the Navajo Nation) and Hawaii have instead made standard time permanent, which is perfectly acceptable under federal law.

    So why don’t states that feel so strongly about ending the time changes just implement permanent standard time? Rubio and other proponents of permanent daylight saving time argue that the benefits include more time for outdoor activities or work in the evenings and energy savings. Many experts agree that time changes contribute to health and even safety concerns.

    Changing the clock can be bad for your health

    Herzog said the time changes disrupt the body’s circadian rhythm, which is similar to our internal clock. Jumping forward an hour in March is more difficult for us than falling back in November. The shift in spring is associated with an increase in heart attacks, and car accident rates also rise a few days afterward, he said.

    But the answer is not permanent daylight saving time, according to Herzog, who said this could be even worse for human health than the biennial changes. By looking at studies of people living on the easternmost edges of time zones (whose experience is closest to standard time) and people living on the westernmost edges (more like daylight saving time), scientists can see that the consequences for the health of earlier sunrises and sunsets are much better. Waking up naturally with the sun is much better for our bodies than depending on an alarm clock to wake up in the dark, he said.

    Herzog said that Florida, where Rubio has championed the Sunlight Protection Act, is much less affected by the negative effects of daylight saving time because it is as far east and south as you can get in the U.S., while people in a state like Minnesota are much More time in the dark in the morning.

    “Florida is motivated by the calculation that they can get more people golfing in the afternoon when you have some daylight hours after work,” he said.

    Permanent daylight saving time has not worked well in the past

    We’ve had daylight saving time for more than eight months before, and it wasn’t a big hit.

    From February 1942 to September 1945, the U.S. battled what became known as “War Time,” when Congress voted to implement year-round daylight saving time during the war in an effort to save fuel. When it ended, states could set their own standard time until 1966, when Congress finally passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized national time.

    Amid an energy crisis in 1973, former President Richard Nixon signed a bill that put the US on daylight saving time starting in January 1974. While the American public initially liked the idea, the experiment “soon clashed with public opinion.” The New York Times reported in October 1974. Sunrises, which in some places could occur until 9:30 a.m. in parts of the winter, were becoming increasingly unpopular. It didn’t take long for Congress to change course in October 1974.

    Contributing: Krystal Nurse, USA TODAY

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