Over the weekend, daylight saving time ended and many of us gained a much needed hour of sleep. However, to the frustration of many, the sun is now setting before 5 p.m. and the days will be getting shorter until earlier December. This is because we are now in standard time. Now, Fordham University students may go to class at 4 p.m. when it is light out and leave at 5:15 p.m. when it is dark. Many Americans do not seem to be fans of the biannual tradition of moving the clocks. A CBS YouGov poll from 2022 found that 46% of Americans wanted to keep daylight saving time year-round because they liked having more sun in the afternoon. We think that it’s time to put an end to the constant changing of the clocks and keep year-round daylight saving time so we can continue having sunny afternoons.
Believe it or not, standard time and daylight saving time are not ancient traditions. The modern idea for daylight saving time came from New Zealander George Vernon Hudson. He proposed “advancing” the time of day by two hours to give people more time to be outside in the evening. While his idea was not popular at the time, it gradually caught on during World War I. Daylight saving time was first enacted by the United States government in 1918 as a wartime measure. It added an hour of sunlight to the day as a way to save money on fuel costs. The law also allowed for the federal government to create five time zones across the country as a way to uphold standardization among transportation modes. While daylight saving time was officially implemented, it was not yet a federal law.
In many ways, our argument for keeping daylight saving time is simple. We like it when the sun is out later. It is a real bummer when the sun sets around 4:30 p.m. because it encourages you to stay indoors. However, the greatest argument in favor of keeping daylight saving time permanent is the havoc “springing forward” causes in the spring. Losing an hour of sleep causes negative impacts on the human body like increased heart attacks and strokes. It can increase moodiness and tiredness among people in the weeks following the switch. Finally, it can be a safety issue. One 2020 study found evidence the switch raised fatal accident risk by 6%. Keeping daylight saving time year-round would allow us to end these early sunsets and the irritating practice of switching the clocks.
It should be noted that while this idea has a lot of support, there has not been much momentum to change things. In 2022, the Senate passed a bill creating a permanent national daylight saving time, but it stalled in the House of Representatives and never got passed. There are also still debates among the American public on what choice is better; 33% of Americans in the CBS YouGov survey wanted to keep standard time year-round and 21% wanted to keep switching back and forth.
Overall, it seems that the debate over changing the clocks may not be resolved anytime soon. Maybe it’s something that Americans will argue until the end of time. In the meantime, enjoy your early sunsets.
