It’s no surprise that over the past few days, immediately after the country’s annual “spring forward” Sunday morning, momentum appears to be growing to do away with the twice-a-year time change.
The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Tuesday to do away with the time changes, and if the House and President Biden concur, clocks will stay on their summer schedule permanently, in what is known as Daylight Saving Time. There would be no more need to move clocks ahead one hour in March and move them back an hour in November.
Few would disagree that changing the time twice a year is inconvenient. In March, as everyone saw last weekend, you “lose” an hour of sleep when the time jumps from 2 a.m. to 3 a.m. in an instant. And in November, adjusting to sunset suddenly arriving an hour earlier is a dispiriting announcement that the short days of winter have arrived.
The main problem is that it takes a day or two for most people to adjust to the new time. Anyone seriously upset about losing an hour of sleep in March can simply go to bed an hour earlier than usual on the Saturday night before the time changes.
Senators from both parties who shepherded the bill approved this week had other interesting reasons to stick with Daylight Saving Time. They believe an earlier sunset during winter hurts retailers by sending more shoppers home before dark. They also believe that the twice-a-year time change has led to increased heart attacks and strokes — as if our generally poor dietary and exercise habits had nothing to do with these health issues.
The Washington Post reported a better reason to choose one time and stick with it. A neurologist told a House panel last week that research into circadian rhythms and even hormone releases indicated it would boost public health not to change the time.
If the Senate vote is any measuring stick, the chances of changing federal law to stay on Daylight Saving Time are good. It is worth remembering, though, that over the decades, one reason many congressmen representing rural areas continued to support time changes is because a later sunset during the winter also means a later sunrise.
Congress has great power, but it cannot do anything about the seasons. During winter in Mississippi, there is about four fewer hours of sunshine per day compared to the summer. And the farther north you go, the sun is up for even fewer hours each day during winter.
A later sunrise means that for a few weeks around the Dec. 21 winter solstice, some kids in rural areas and small towns will be getting on school buses or arriving at school in the dark or in very dim early-morning light. This safety concern is why rural lawmakers tended to support the time change.
Other history of Daylight Saving Time is interesting. Wikipedia says that in the earliest days of the time change, which started in the U.S. in 1918, farmers hated it. Back then, when there was no rural electricity, they complained that the later sunrise during the winter months cost them an hour of sunlight each day to get their milk or harvested crops to market.
Obviously the agricultural situation has improved, thanks to technology like indoor lighting in dairy barns. And the Senate clearly believes that school safety issues are manageable. It is also true that when time falls back each November, lots of kids up north are getting home from school at or after sunset, which can be dangerous too.
Congress did not adopt a nationwide time standard until 1966. Much has changed in the 56 years since then — but it is likely that very soon, one thing that won’t change is the time.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
