Congress could soon vote on a bill that, if passed, would make daylight saving time permanent in the U.S., a transition sleep experts have questioned and one that could have major impacts for Americans.
The bill is known as the Sunshine Protection Act.
When could a vote happen and what would that mean?
Here’s what to know:
What is the Sunshine Protection Act?
The federal bill, supported by President Donald Trump, aims to permanently end the semiannual changing of clocks and establish daylight saving time as the national standard.
When could Congress vote on the Sunshine Protection Act?
The U.S. House of Representatives is slated to vote on the measure sometime this week, according to a notice posted Thursday.
It won’t be the first time the topic has been debated by lawmakers.
While the U.S. Senate voted unanimously in March 2022 to make daylight saving time permanent, the measure stalled in the House due to opposition. The proposal the House will consider this week, however, would allow states to opt out.
In May, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 in favor of the Sunshine Protection Act.
Even though polls show most Americans dislike changing their clocks twice a year, the political moves necessary to change the system haven’t succeeded, as opinions on the issue and its potential impacts remain sharply divided.
What’s the difference between daylight saving time and standard time?
Daylight saving time — setting the clocks forward one hour during the summer half of the year — has been in place in nearly all of the United States since the 1960s.
In the U.S., daylight saving time lasts for a total of 34 weeks, typically running from early-to-mid March to the beginning of November in states that observe it. When the clocks fall back one hour for winter, it returns to standard time.
With the exception of Arizona and Hawaii, most states, including Illinois, observe daylight saving time. U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, also do not observe daylight saving time.
Why was daylight saving time created?
Daylight savings time was first put into place more than a century ago, though some people credit its invention to an essay written by Benjamin Franklin in 1784.
In an essay about saving candles, Franklin wrote “Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” But that was meant more as satire than a serious consideration.
Germany was the first to adopt daylight saving time on May 1, 1916, during World War I as a way to conserve fuel. The rest of Europe followed soon after.
Two years later, the U.S. adopted daylight saving time in March of 1918, with the intention of adding additional daylight hours also as a way to help save energy costs during World War I, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. However, it was unpopular and abolished after World War I.
On Feb. 9, 1942, Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round daylight saving time, which he called “wartime,” again to “help conserve fuel and promote national security defense.” That only lasted until Sept. 30, 1945, however.
Daylight saving time didn’t become standard in the U.S. until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandated standard time across the country within established time zones. It stated that clocks would advance one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April and turn back one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.
The standard schedule for daylight saving changed in 2005, thanks in part to the prevalence of trick-or-treating on Halloween.
Under the conditions of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November – a change put in place in part to allow children to trick-or-treat in more daylight.
What would permanent daylight saving time look like?
Making daylight saving time permanent would mean the sun rises around 9 a.m. in Detroit for a while during the winter.
“Some parts of Montana, North Dakota and Michigan would not see sunrise until after 9:30 a.m. during the winter months,” the American Academy of Sleep Medicine said, if the country adopted permanent daylight saving time.
In Chicago, the sun would at times rise after 8 a.m. and set around 5:30 p.m.
Staying on standard time year round, however, means the sun would be up at 4:11 a.m. in Seattle in June.
Similarly, Chicago sunrises on standard time could mean the sun rises around 4 a.m. in June instead of 5 a.m., and the sunset would be around 7:30 p.m.
What do experts say?
The topic of daylight saving time vs. standard time has long been hotly debated.
Sleep experts have advocated in some cases for a permanent standard time, many saying a switch to permanent daylight saving time would be worse.
Springing one hour ahead, however, is “not good for brain health,” according to experts.
“Losing that hour of sleep [in the spring] for some people, just makes them more anxious, some more depressed, some more irritated. So it can be quite problematic. Problem is that, even long term, while we think we are adjusting to that change, there is actually evidence that we don’t completely adjust to the change, so we are still at increased risk for all those things throughout daylight saving time,” Dr. James Rowley, a professor of medicine at Rush University and the immediate past president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine told NBC Chicago in a previous interview. “… We need sunshine in the morning to help us fall asleep at night. But during the summer, if we have light too much late into the evening, that actually prevents us from falling asleep. So having that ‘extra light’ in the evening actually prevents sleep. So it just has its long term consequences as well.”
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the American Medical Association and the National Sleep Foundation have all called for year-round standard time, which they say aligns the body with natural daylight.
“By causing the human body clock to be misaligned with the natural environment, daylight saving time increases risks to our physical health, mental well-being, and public safety,” Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, who is chair of the AASM Public Safety Committee and a pulmonary, sleep medicine, and critical care specialist at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, said in a statement. “Permanent standard time is the optimal choice for health and safety.”
Some lawmakers have said the “absurdly late” winter sunrises would force children to “walk to school in the pitch black” in much of the country.
Supporters of the Sunshine Protection Act say the time shift causes sleep disturbances, greater workplace injuries and more car crashes. They also believe brighter evenings would encourage more economic activity during winter.
President Donald Trump has pushed for an end to time changes, writing in an April TruthSocial post that staying on daylight saving time would be “Very popular and, most importantly, no more changing of the clocks, a big inconvenience and, for our government, A VERY COSTLY EVENT!!!”
Jay Pea, president of Save Standard Time, an organization devoted to switching to standard time for good, weighed in on the longlasting time change debate, saying, “There’s no law we can pass to move the sun to our will.”
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