Daylight Savings Time Brings Light

By Rachel Max ‘24
    Daylight saving is the practice of shifting the time to more closely align with sunlight hours during the day. It has been practiced for over a century, but now, the idea of throwing away the antiquated concept is more appealing than ever. 

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According to a survey by AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in 2020, only 29% of people favor maintaining the current system of the biyearly shifts, and lawmakers are following suit.
    The Sunshine Protection was a federal bill that proposed making daylight savings time the new standard time and removing the “springing forwards” and “falling back” of the current system. It was passed unanimously in the Senate, but the bill died after it was stalled in the House and is currently being reintroduced.
Currently, excluding the states that have already stopped participating in the daylight savings time system, Hawaii and most of Arizona, 19 states have passed legislation or resolutions that would have them permanently adopt daylight savings time. However, these laws would only go into effect if the US passed the Sunshine Protection Act.
Abandoning the daylight savings time system is also supported by the AASM (American Academy of Sleep Medicine), which says that the problems caused by time shifts go beyond the minor inconvenience. Losing an hour of sleep produces a jetlag-like experience that can take days to recover from. This loss has been linked with serious public health and safety concerns, including weakened immune systems, an increase in fatal motor vehicle incidents, heart attacks, strokes and mood disorders and a decrease in performance at school and work.
With all the adverse side effects, the question becomes increasingly obvious: why is daylight savings time system still in use?
Daylight savings time was established in 1918 in the US as part of a war effort to decrease energy consumption by aligning the hours people are awake to when the sun is up, minimizing the energy used to light up homes, offices, etc. It also encouraged people to take advantage of the nice weather and allowed them to participate in more outside activities after school or work with the lengthened light hours.
However, despite the good intentions behind the idea, studies have shown that it does little to nothing regarding a decrease in energy consumption. While daylight savings time has been shown to reduce electricity usage, albeit by a small margin, the positive impact is negated by the increase in air conditioner usage, as people are more likely to use A.C.s during the daytime.
Though people do indeed spend more time participating in outdoor activities, this results in more vehicular travel, and in turn, fuel, and energy consumption increase as people drive more miles per day. This aspect, combined with air conditioner usage, means that daylight savings time does not save any electricity, and some sources even believe that it might result in higher energy consumption.
Daylight savings time provides no benefits and puts our mental and physical health at risk, and thus, the best thing we can do is get rid of it for good.