Bill To Make Daylight Saving Time Permanent Now Stalled In Congress, Here’s Why

Surprise, surprise. Another bill remains stalled in Congress. This time it’s the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, a bill that would make daylight saving time (DST) the new, permanent time all year round. This would help you and your body avoid the twice-yearly time switcheroo such as the one that took place this past March and the switch that’s scheduled to occur tomorrow, November 6 at 2 am, assuming that the U.S. doesn’t implode before then. Such an act may seem as non-partisan as it can get, with neither the Democrats nor the Republican seeing compelling reason to quash such a bill. But the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 may now be shining a light on another type of ongoing partisan-divide: Morning Larks versus Night Owls.

After all, removing time switches is probably not the controversial thing. There likely aren’t too many people who are saying, “I really like clock changes and missing all my appointments that Sunday and Money. It’s also great messing with my sleep after each switch and the confusion that results immediately afterwards. It adds to the mystery of life.” Indeed, a YouGov poll, conducted March 16 through 20, revealed that 64% of Americans surveyed in the U.S. favored getting rid of the twice-annual clock change.

There wasn’t as clear a consensus when it come to whether DST or the current Standard Time should be the new permanent time. But 53% of them favored making DST, the clock settings that have typically started in March and ended in November each year, permanent. Compare this to the 32% who favored making Standard Time, the clock settings currently maintain during the late Fall and Winter months, permanent. The results fell somewhat along Morning Lark versus Night Owl lines, also known as the wrong versus right lines from a Night Owl perspective. Of the adults who start their weekdays before 6 a.m, 38% opted for making Standard Time permanent, compared to 25% of those who start their weekdays after 8 a.m.

This Act, which passed the U.S. Senate on March 15, 2022, about a year after it was introduced on March 9, 2021, would make DST, yeah you known me, permanent. Should the Act pass, from November 5, 2023, onwards, the U.S. would no longer have to do the mind and body disrupting “Spring forward, Fall back” thing each year. Seems pretty straight “forward,” right? Well, it seems like the words “straight forward” and Congress seem to go together about as well as having to pee and being on a roller coaster. Instead of “springing forward” on this bill, The House of Representatives appears to be “falling back” on old habits. The bill has languished in the so-called lower Chamber of Congress for over seven months now, consumed by a morass of lobbying efforts.

There was hope that the bill would go swiftly through the House after it got hefty bipartisan support in the Senate. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) was the Sponsor of this Act, which had 18 co-sponsors in the Senate consisting of 10 Republicans and eight Democrats. The bill had passed via unanimous consent in the Senate, which these days doesn’t happen often, unless the need for the bill is obvious such as a bill declaring that chocolate is a good thing to exist or that space lasers haven’t been causing the California wildfires. (OK, may be the second wouldn’t get unanimous support in the House.) So the Senate decision suggested that the bill would not hit roadblocks in the House.

But then reality hit. And reality can often bite, as the title of that 1994 rom-com starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Ben Stiller suggested. Some House members began questioning the procedures in the Senate and urging that more discussion is needed before a decision is made. Whenever a Congress folks try to put the brakes on a legislative process, it’s usually because some lobbyist somewhere has got to them. In this case, the lobbyists appear to be coming from one particular party: Morning People, otherwise known as Morning Larks or people whose goal it is to make the lives of Night Owls or Late Night People miserable.

Yes, Morning Folks are the ones who have showered our society with Early Morning propaganda such as quotes that say “the early bird gets the worm” when you are wondering who the heck wants worms? And Ben Franklin’s quote that says “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise,” rather than Banksy’s quote that says, “People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine.” There’s no real clear scientific evidence whether being a Morning Lark or Night Owl is better. It really seems more of a personal preference thing. Morning Larks may argue that the morning is quiet and peaceful, allowing you to collect your thoughts. However, this neglects the fact that the nighttime can be quiet and peaceful too. Plus, compared to the full lineup of Late Night TV, there’s not much to watch on TV in the early morning unless you want to watch four straight episodes of Charmed on TNT.

Making DST permanent would help those interested in having more daylight in the 4:30 pm to 9 pm range throughout the year. This would mean that folks would be less likely to walk out of work or school at the end of the day into the pitch dark. Now pone could argue that daylight during the 4:30 pm to 9 pm time range would benefit everyone since practically everyone is awake during this time, aside from those who call it a day after watching the People’s Court on TV at 5 pm. Having DST year round would extend the hours of sunshine that most businesses would operate under, assuming that most businesses stay open in the 9 am to 9pm time frame.

By contrast, making Standard Time permanent would add more daylight to the early morning, 5:30 am to 8 am hours. This in turn would benefit those people, professions, religious groups, and organizations who operate more in such early morning hours. Rumor has it that some folks are already awake, active, and get work done during these hours.

So this seems to be mainly a Morning Lark versus Night Owl debate. Yet, some seem to be waving the “S” word, claiming that scientific evidence supports maintaining Standard Time throughout the year. For example, a letter from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine (SBSM), and Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR) claimed that “There is strong scientific and medical evidence that supports permanent Standard Time. Evidence for keeping Standard Time also includes the rapid repeal of permanent DST in the past due to public safety concerns during dark morning commutes necessitated by DST.”

This argument, of course, assumes that people are waking up and commuting early in the morning as medical doctors often do. In the medical profession, six a.m. meetings are not unusual, whereas for many other people the only thing that you may be meeting at that time is the toilet bowl. Moreover, this AASM, SBSM, and SRBR statement focused purely on the sunrise portion of the day and overlooked the other end of the day: sunset. What about concerns about dark evening (or even late afternoon) commutes or the safety of the kids being out in the dark soon after school ends?

What about the statement’s reference to “the rapid repeal of permanent DST in the past?” Well, this probably referring to an attempt an attempt around 50 years ago to institute DTS year-round. Don’t draw too much from that experience as it didn’t last long enough to see what would happen had people gotten used the change. Any change from the current situation is likely to affect people’s moods and potentially cause accidents in the short term. As a reminder, the U.S. is not the only country on Earth. Lots of different countries regularly experience different ranges of daylight hours from the U.S. yet seem to be doing fine. Therefore, stating that “There is strong scientific and medical evidence that supports” any particular time standard seems a bit over the top.

It’s a little surprising that the AASM would take such a strong stance on this issue, rather than acknowledging the heterogeneity and diversity that exists among the population. While there are general principles to follow, such as getting sleep is a good thing, the science doesn’t really support the same range of sleeping and waking hours for everyone. Yet, according to Dan Diamond writing for the Washington Post, the AASM has been pumping time, effort, and money into its lobbying for Standard Time efforts, spending around $130,000 in the third quarter of 2022. One has to wonder whether this is really the biggest sleep issue that Americans face right now.

One-size-fits-all rarely works when it comes to health issues. Just like one diet, one type of physical activity, and one set of mental health approaches doesn’t work for everyone, one set of sleep hours probably doesn’t work for everyone. In the end, it’s not clear if there is really strong medical evidence for making DST permanent versus Standard Time permanent. The only thing that is clear is clock changes can disrupt sleep and lead to some health issues such as accidents and potentially events like heart attaches until the body and mind have adjusted to the new time. It’s essentially jet lag without the benefit of actually traveling to a new place. Ultimately, the DST versus Standard Time debate may be more an operational and logistics issue. The Department of Transportation will be conducting a study that won’t be ready until after December 31, 2023. So for now, expect the House of Representatives to sleep on this bill and our current twice-a-year switcheroo along with the accompanying jet lag to keep on lagging.