In the United States 19 states would like to have daylight savings time stopped. But it is stuck in our political system! Understandably there seems that there are higher priorities. It seems this small issue may be a lot easier to get done! Eventually after it passes through the House of Representatives, it will then go to our current President for his signature.
Two states – Hawaii and Arizona – don’t observe daylight saving time. The United States territories of American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Northern Mariana Islands also don’t change their clocks. California voters also authorized a resolution in 2018, but lawmakers haven’t taken any action on the legislation.
However, pretty much everyone agrees that ending the time changes is generally a good idea. Our bodies and health can be very sensitive to disruptions to our circadian rhythms as well as our hearts and other areas that contribute to our wellness.
Doctors and scientists argue that standard time is actually better for our health. Our internal clock is better aligned with getting light in the morning, which, in turn sets us up for better sleep cycles.
The History of Daylight Savings Time
A few theories believe Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea for daylight savings time (DST). Others believe it was adopted so farmers could have more hours of sunlight to work in the field.
It was first introduced in Germany in 1916 during World War I as an energy saving measure, according to the CU Boulder sleep researcher Kenneth Wright. The U.S. followed suit, adopting DST in 1918. Initially implemented as a wartime measure, it was repealed a year later. Daylight saving time was reinstituted in 1942 during World War II. Congress finally passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which standardized daylight saving time and its start and end dates across the country, with the exceptions Hawaii and Arizona, which opted to keep standard time year-round.
During the energy crisis of 1974, the U.S. decided to adopt permanent DST. However, after the first winter of dark mornings, public support dropped so low that it was repealed.
In recent years, U.S. lawmakers, including Colorado Governor Jared Polis, have reopened the conversation about shifting ot permanent daylight saving time.
in March, 2021, the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which makes DST the new permanent standard time effective November 5, 2023 while more sun in the evenings might sound nice, many experts including Wright, director of CU’s Sleep and Chronobiology Lab disagree with the proposal. The Sunshine Protection Act . This month (March, 2024, we changed the clocks again. A four month difference.
“If you look at the expert consensus from the scientific societies that focus on sleep, health and circadian rhythms, all of them agree this is a bad idea.” Wright told CU Boulder Today earlier this year. Yes we should be getting rid of the time change. But the science, suggests we should be sticking with standard time, not daylight saving time.”
More sunlight in the evenings comes at the price of morning light, a dangerous trade off, according to Wright. Dark mornings mean sleepier commuters, icier roads and more school children walking to school or waiting for the bus before the sun comes up, he said.
Recent reports have suggested that significant health changes occur each time the clock turns back or forward. The time transition does more than just inspire mixed opinions, grogginess, and foul moods. Researchers say that the change has long-term negative consequences for our bodies and minds.
In an article published in PLOS Computational Biology, titled Measurable health effects associated with the daylight saving time shift the authors report that the transition to daylight saving time (DST) is beneficial for energy conservation but at the same time it has been reported to increase the risk of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular problems.
For hundreds of sex- and age-specific diseases, we assessed effects of the DST shifts towards and backward by one hour in spring and autumn by comparing the observed and expected diagnosis rates after DST shift exposure. They found four prominent, elevated risk clusters, including cardiovascular diseases (such as heart attacks), injuries, mental and behavioral disorders such as noninfective enteritis and colitis to be significantly associated with DST shifts in the United States and Sweden.
While the majority of disease risk elevations are modest (a few percent), a considerable number of diseases exhibit an approximately ten percent relative risk increase. The researchers estimated that each spring DST shift is associated with negative health effects – with 150,000 incidences in the US, and 880,000 globally. They also identify for the first time a collection of diseases with relative risks that appear to decrease immediately after the spring DST shift, enriched with infections and immune system-related maladies. These diseases’ decreasing relative risks might be driven by the documented boosting effect of a short-term stress (such as that experienced around the sprint DST shift) on the immune system.
The authors writing most of the information above include Hanxin Zhang, Torsten Dahien, Atif Khan, Gustaf Edgren, Andrey Rzhetisky.
