A recent event has changed many people’s sleep schedule and possible overall well-being. This is Daylight Savings. While many people love it from the standpoint of it meaning the days feel longer and it gets darker later in the day, there are also some mental and physical repercussions linked with this archaic practice. Despite just causing sleep deprivation, it also throws off our body’s natural cycle which can make people sick.
Before getting too far, let’s start with a little bit of the history of daylight saving time. Many people think it was started by Ben Franklin in 1784 in his essay titled “An Economical Project.” In this essay, he talked about how Parisians alter their sleeping habits to save money on lamp oil and candles. While this would be an interesting start to daylight saving time, it was a satirical essay, so that is unlikely. His suggestion also required that people just wake up earlier.
Another theory of where it started is with farmers. It is said that the agriculture industry came up with the idea so that farmers would have more daylight to work in the fields. This is untrue as farmers are actually typically against daylight saving time because it ruins their routines. They would rather use the sun and seasons to determine their routine than a clock.
The first places in the world to implement daylight saving time were actually Fort Arthur and Port William in Ontario, Canada in 1908. Then, on May 1, 1916, Germany became the first country to use daylight saving time, with the rest of Europe following shortly after. Germany used it during World War I as a way to save fuel. The U.S. didn’t start using it until March 19, 1918. People didn’t like it, so the U.S. got rid of it after World War I. During WWII, specifically on February 9, 1942, Franklin Roosevelt made what he called “war time,” which was a year round daylight saving time. This was abolished on September 30, 1945. When the Uniform Time Act was passed in the U.S. in 1966, daylight saving time became standard practice. It said that at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April, the clock would go forward one hour and on the last Sunday in October, the clocks would turn back one hour. It has since evolved to the daylight saving time we have today.
Currently, less than 40% of the world’s countries utilize Daylight Savings. In the U.S., Arizona and Hawaii don’t use it, and there are at least 15 other states, including Delaware, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington, with state legislation abolishing it. The issue is that these states need to get Congressional approval to adopt year-round daylight saving time, which they haven’t been able to get… until possibly now.
This past Tuesday, The Senate passed a bill making daylight saving time permanent in two years. The legislation is called the Sunshine Protection Act and was passed unanimously. It now must go to the House for a vote. If it passes there, the President will then have to sign it into law. If it becomes law, the Sunshine Protection Act will go into effect in November of 2023.
So far, the White House has not commented on if the President supports the bill or not, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly “reviewing it closely.” This law would make the days longer year round, so it could help seasonal depression.
One incredible aspect of this bill is that it seems to have bipartisan support. In today’s political climate where so much is not happening because of partisanship in the House and Congress, it is amazing to see something everyone seems to agree with.
One of the sponsors of the bill is Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, and he sums up the sentiment of the bill nicely.
Rubio said, “I know this is not the most important issue confronting America, but it’s one of those issues where there’s a lot of agreement. If we can get this passed, we don’t have to do this stupidity anymore.”
Although this does seem to have bipartisan support, there are some opponents of the Sunshine Protection Act. One of these opponents is the National Association of Convenience Stores. They say that it’s not good for kids to be going to school in the dark.
There are also some people who support the bill but do not know whether they think there should only be standard time or only daylight time. An example of someone like this is Representative Frank Pallone of the House Energy and Commerce committee. He made this claim during a hearing of his committee on the issue.
During this hearing, Beth Malow, who is the director of the Vanderbilt Sleep Division, also voiced her opinion. She said that daylight saving time makes it more difficult for people to be alert in the morning. She said it is like living in the wrong time zone for half the year.
Despite just being a debate, there are also physical benefits to the Sunshine Protection Act. In the House Energy and Commerce committee hearing, Pallon cited a poll from 2019 that said that 71% of Americans like switching clocks twice a year.
There are studies that say that around daylight saving time, there is a slight increase in car crashes and heart attacks and strokes. By eliminating this change, these traumatic events could be minimized, as well.
As you can tell, there are many factors playing into this decision, but almost unanimously, people seem to be supporting an end to daylight saving time. While for us, we have never known a time without it, an end could be coming soon. This would mean one day, we could be telling our kids and grandkids about something they never had to experience. What do you think? Do you like the idea of getting rid of it, or do you like daylight saving time? Let me know in the comments!
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-bill-that-would-make-daylight-savings-time-permanent-2023-2022-03-15/
https://www.newsweek.com/origin-daylight-saving-time-why-we-still-have-it-1687090
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/how-daylight-saving-time-got-started/2666081/
Since I already complained about this in a passion post a few blogs ago, you probably already know where I stand on this issue. Daylight savings is incredibly stupid. None of the positives that it brought when it was originally used (saving fuel during wartime) are present, and now only the drawbacks of mental and physical health problems remain. It’s pretty dumb. However, even dumber is this proposal to end it, for one simple reason: don’t leave us on DST!!! Obviously, we would have the problem of kids going to school in the dark during the winter, but an even more obvious problem would be that solar noon would no longer be anywhere close to noon. It’s already weird to have to differentiate between the two, and we’re pretty close to the middle of the time zone. Imagine if it were an extra hour off all year round. Madness.
It’s very refreshing to see people in our government doing any form of cooperation. I’m personally not a daylights saving fan since losing sleep is absolutely awful. Also, I hate when you have to manually change clocks like on the microwave. I also find it interesting how insistent people are on having clocks match daylight. I guess I wouldn’t understand because I don’t have a very strict schedule, but I work around my internal clock rather than what time it supposedly is. Fun times
This is a very timely blog considering the bill you mentioned. For me, I cannot imagine living without daylight savings, simply because it’s all we know. Daylight savings is one of those strange things that our children won’t believe was a thing because it doesn’t make much sense. Getting rid of it, however, would make America’s timing system consistent as Hawaii currently does not use it.
I was so happy when I saw this bill introduced, and was even more surprised when a bill was proposed with bipartisan support. I truly thought daylight savings was for agricultural reasons, and had no idea that wasn’t true. I honestly feel that getting rid of daylight savings would be safer. I came back to Penn State on Monday and rode in the post-daylight savings commuting traffic and it was not a fun experience. While kids going to school in the dark isn’t ideal, a few years ago in my hometown there was a bus accident because of a disoriented driver the Monday after daylight savings. If we’re talking about the physical and mental well-being of everyone, I think avoiding car accidents is a great thing.
Like my peers, I too am not a major fan of daylight saving time, there are just too many drawbacks that come with it. The main one for me is losing an hour of sleep. I enjoyed that you provided background information on the origin of daylight saving times because I don’t think a lot of people know its purpose or why it was started.
I am only a fan of daylight savings when it gives me extra sleep! Honestly, I am so used to it that it doesn’t necessarily affect me as much. I did not know too much about it so I enjoyed reading the facts and history you provided about it. I think people nowadays just go along with it without question.