Who thinks daylight saving time needs to just go away? Much of the U.S. will officially “fall back” to standard time next Sunday, November 1st. Many of us will struggle with that early-morning adjustment for weeks. My body-clock alarm will go off at 4 a.m., and for the foreseeable future I’ll feel exhausted.
What pains me more is that my standard work schedule of 10 am – 6 pm leaves no time for gardening during the week. The sun sets in Florida at 5:20 pm, and the trade-off is sunrise around 6:40 am.
We [US residents] have struggled with this time shift for more than a century. The Standard Time Act of 1918 was adopted as a wartime measure to save coal and power. It was repealed after World War I, but brought back by Franklin Roosevelt to support “wartime” production during WWII. After that war ended, city and town leaders caused massive confusion by trying to establish U.S. time. Then Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, permanently establishing the system we have today.
Arizona and Hawaii, along with the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Northern Mariana Islands, all opted out of observing daylight saving time.
Stop the Time Swap
I’ve heard all the arguments for why the time change is necessary. Personally, I’m ready to leave the twice-a-year clock change behind. Are you?
The agricultural community stood against Daylight Saving Time (DST). The time change conflicts with traditional farming that aligns with the sun’s rising and setting. It’s a myth that farmers wanted the time shift.
The arguments for and against Daylight Saving Time focus on three main issues:
- Negative health consequences from disrupted biological rhythms,
- Increased public safety risks during clock transitions,
- and the fact that its historical energy-saving benefits are now negligible.
Do people experience health consequences when the time changes?
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) states that permanent Standard Time aligns best with the sun and human biology. DST delays morning light and extends evening light, making it harder to fall asleep and causing chronic sleep deprivation.
A University of Michigan study showed a 24% increase in heart attacks and strokes following the spring-forward adjustment. However, a larger 2024 Duke University study of nearly 170,000 patients found no significant change in heart attacks or related deaths during either transition.
Traffic and safety concerns for drivers and kids.
Traffic data consistently point to a rise in fatal car crashes and general accidents in the days immediately following the spring shift, generally attributed to sleep deprivation.
I remember standing at the bus stop in the dark in early 1970s Michigan. It was cold waiting 15-20 minutes for that big yellow bus. But the suburban roads were less congested, and drivers were more aware of kids in residential areas.
In my opinion, this is the biggest obstacle to the entire country moving back to standard time. But, get this, the government doesn’t collect data on this statistic.
Ironically, The School Transportation News Report estimates that roughly 17,000 school-transportation-related injuries occur annually in the U.S. across all settings, with about 23.8% happening while children are boarding, exiting, or approaching the bus. That’s a huge number of kids injured boarding or getting off the school bus. But no one has ever tracked whether the number goes up when kids board buses in the dark.
Based on pedestrian data, they suspect darkness significantly increases the risk of injuries when kids walk to school or wait for buses. I can’t believe no one has put the numbers together yet!
Aligning to standard time means the sun rises earlier in the winter months, so children and commuters don’t have to travel or wait for school buses in the dark. I guess we don’t really need to do a study on that point.
Why are we still changing clocks?
The US Congress considered making daylight saving time permanent several times.
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022 to make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, though the House of Representatives did not vote on it at the time. The question remains whether Arizona and Hawaii would embrace that change and join the other 48 states now to unify the time standard.
The House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act again in July 2026 by a 308–117 vote to end the twice-yearly time change. But as of late 2026, the bill remains stalled in the Senate and has not become law.
That means most of us will be gaining an hour again this Sunday. Maybe we can all meet for breakfast when we awaken an hour earlier!