Lina Hsu, Yeyeong Chang

Daylight saving time (DST) was proposed to help people use their time more efficiently, but is this really beneficial for us? The majority of Americans would actually prefer to eliminate DST, but the federal law prohibits states from doing so. We should voice our concerns to eliminate DST to prevent increasing declines in physical and mental health welfare.

Benjamin Franklin invented the concept of DST in 1784 because he believed that rising earlier would economize candle usage and save people money. Pushing clocks forward to make greater use of daylight during the warmer months was formally adopted during World War I as part of a global attempt to conserve energy. The United States officially adopted DST as part of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 years later.

Moving the clocks forward in the spring results in going to sleep and waking up before our internal clocks are ready for us to. We obtain less sleep as a result of this misalignment, which persists throughout the entirety of DST. The consequences of insufficient sleep include decreases in cardiovascular health, mental health, and lower cognitive performance, as well as increases in diabetes and obesity. Hospital hospitalizations and mood disorders are also at an increased risk.

Additionally, adolescents who get less sleep often have behavioral, learning, and attention issues, as well as an increased risk of accidents, injuries, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and mental health problems. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that during school days after the time change, students were sleepier, had slower reaction times, and were less attentive.

Switching to DST contributed to an increasing risk of fatal traffic accidents as a result of a disrupted sleep schedule and a misalignment of our circadian rhythm. According to the study, “A Chronobiological Evaluation of the Acute Effects of Daylight Saving Time on Traffic Accident Risk,” with 732,000 fatal crashes, a 6% spike in fatal-accident risk in the U.S. following daylight saving time was present. 

Many have decided to take action against DST but failed due to federal laws that prohibited states from eliminating DST. For example, Senator Marco Rubio’s Sunshine Protection Act gained momentum in 2022 but was stalled in 2023. Over the course of 2021 and 2023, attempts to get the bill to the president failed to get a vote in the House. Dozens of states continue to consider proposals to adopt either permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time.

Although many have expressed support for DST for extending hours of daylight and improving safety on roads, its overall impact is more detrimental than beneficial. Eliminating DST permanently will improve our health and our quality of life. We should advocate and raise our voices to drastically increase physical and mental health welfare and society.