Daylight saving

The US may switch to permanent daylight saving time - it's time we stopped changing the clocks, too.

An end to changing clocks, and the spike in angst, heart attacks and car crashes that come every year when we just all decide to change what time it is.Experts in the field of chronobiology have made their preference fairly clear: abandon daylight saving altogether as a failed experiment. (It’s kind of wild we all agree to just call 8am the new 9am and shame everyone into following suit.)So here’s my suggestion for better living through daylight:First, the federal government should unilaterally end daylight saving. After the war, we abandoned it until 1967, when Tasmania brought it back in to help tackle a drought by reducing power and water consumption. Second, move the starting time of work and school to 9.30am. Give our sleep-deprived teenagers (and me) the extra sleep they need. There’s a major divide in Queensland between daylight savers and daylight spenders (my coinage, may not catch on). South-east Queenslanders broadly want daylight saving, while the farmers of the north and west absolutely do not.We’ve had national agreement before, during both world wars, when daylight saving time became permanent to save energy by making the most of evening light. We should kill daylight saving and change school start time to 9.30am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. For just a minute, it feels as if I’ve gone somewhere exciting like overseas and done something new.But then I wake up properly and have to pry the children from their slumber, clothe them, feed them and extract them, yawning, from the house.Daylight saving ends at 3am on Sunday. Clocks should be turned back an hour.Yes, yes, we all love lingering summer evenings. But there’s a case for picking one timezone – daylight saving or standard – and making it permanent across Australia. Less confusion. The world is already geared enough to smug morning types returning from 10-kilometre runs and 50-kilometre bike rides, suffused with health, vitality and their inevitable next promotion.That’s why I perked up when I read that the US may be making daylight saving time permanent through the lovingly titled Sunshine Protection Act. Backer Marco Rubio, a Republican, noted that while it was not the biggest issue facing America (correct), it was one that had a lot of agreement.I guess when we’re confronted by disasters and threats on many fronts – war, catastrophic floods, climate change, pandemics – it’s comforting to focus on something we can get right.But what is the right answer? As it stands, we’re a nation divided: the NT, Queensland and WA scorn daylight saving. And at the other end, when clocks go back so we can get more winter morning and less light in the evening? About the only thing I like about changing the clocks for daylight saving is that heavy feeling of jet lag when my alarm goes off.

There's an extra hour of sleep coming up for people in some eastern Australian states as daylight saving comes to an end. At 3am Sunday NSW, Victoria, ...

Various clocks on the floor in a conference room show different times. Is it time for the U.S. to get on permanent DST? Sina Schuldt/picture alliance via ...

Even though Yamaguchi prefers not to move to ST permanently, he knows that the benefits of DST last only a few weeks for his business and doesn't rebuke the negative impacts it can have on health. "We're seeing gaps between what the public thinks and both published research and real-world observations of the clock change's effects on health." The U.S. also switched to permanent DST during the energy crisis between 1974 and 1975. The U. S. first used permanent DST for seven months during World War I. It was adopted again during World War II to conserve fuel and was officially known as "war time." In the seven days following time changes, safety-related incidents increased by 4.2 percent in the spring and 8.8 percent in the fall. "The second is sun time, when the sun goes up, and when the sun goes down. A 2014 report on cardiovascular events stated that the Monday following the shift to DST is associated with a 24 percent increase in heart attacks. In 2008, the Department of Energy (DOE) found that the extra four weeks of DST (which were added in 2007) had saved just 0.5 percent in total electricity per day. In the U. S., DST is observed between the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November. The policy seems simple, just to adjust a clock, but it's more complicated when we think about how it affects our bodies. "Getting that extra hour of sunlight actually boosts the amount of people who choose to travel for outdoor excursions, activities or for visiting theme parks," Mueller says. (The bill still needs to pass in the House of Representatives and be signed by President Joe Biden.) DST has been studied extensively so we'll take a look at the pros and cons of moving to it permanently.

Daylight Saving ends tonight in NSW, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

Karin Johnson '99 was paying close attention earlier this month when the U.S. Senate voted on the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving ...

Experts argue that the status quo—a time change to daylight saving time during spring—results in poorer sleep through the duration of daylight saving time. Johnson highlights that while several countries have previously tried to make daylight saving time permanent—including the United States in 1974—all of them eventually reversed their decision. The group regularly meets with members of Congress to present evidence for the argument against daylight saving time. Data from Russia, which made daylight saving time permanent from 2011 to 2014, show the measure’s negative effects. Scientists fear that making daylight saving time permanent in the winter, when the sun already rises later, could cause people to lose even more sleep. Evidence shows that daylight saving time may actually increase energy usage, especially in the summer, when daylight hours are often accompanied by use of air conditioners. Furthermore, because the sun sets later, the average person might go to sleep later (on social time) than she would if she had been on standard time. However, they like permanent daylight saving time even less than a time change, which they say could result in poorer sleep year-round, leading to a variety of health impacts including higher incidence of cancer and mental illness. So, for example, the average adult in Boston might find it fairly easy to be at work at 9 a.m. (social time) in July, when the sun rises (sun time) around 5:30 a.m.—that early sunrise allows the body to produce enough cortisol to wake up naturally (circadian time) well before eating breakfast or beginning a commute. And circadian time is our body’s time; it tells us when we want to go to sleep and when we want to wake. But that same adult might be less well-rested for a 9 a.m. start in December, when the sun rises at 7:15 a.m. With a shift to permanent daylight saving time, that sunrise would correspondingly shift to 8:15 a.m. When senators approved the bill—to the cheers of many Americans who loathe the time change each fall and spring—Johnson, director of the Baystate Medical Center Regional Sleep Program, was alarmed.

A legislative effort to make daylight saving time permanent in Colorado took a big step forward Friday, receiving approval from the state House of ...