Every year we set our clocks forward by one hour in the spring, and then push them back an hour in the fall. In the spring of 2022, this biannual changing of the clocks turned into a hot topic. However, as the world got distracted by big news, like the war between Ukraine and Russia, we forgot about Daylight Savings Time until it showed up again on Sunday November 5th, 2023. With the clocks being set back, we had to stop and ask ourselves: is the time change really necessary?
As children, we are always told that by setting our clocks back one hour, we are awarded an extra hour of sleep. This is in fact true, but only on the first day of the change. Every day following, the sun comes up earlier, but it’s dark out by the time younger kids get off of their buses.
In January of 2021, a bill known as the Sunshine Protection Act was introduced. The bill was designed to put an end to the clock changing, and Daylight Savings Time would be a thing of the past. In 2022, the bill was reintroduced to the US Senate by Senator Marc Rubio. The bill passed unanimously, and is now awaiting approval from the House of Representatives and the signing into law by Joe Biden.
There have been a variety of explanations as to why we still perform this practice twice a year. They used to say clocks were changed to allow more hours of sunlight for the farmers. However, now the recent explanation for the clock changing has been to extend the amount of daylight to reduce American electricity usage.
Before the Sunshine Protection Act moves forward, it’s worth recognizing how many people actually want Daylight Savings to go away. According to a poll done last year by Monmouth University, 44% of Americans want to set their clocks back an hour, and then be done with the changing of clocks.
As humans, our bodies have time clocks that are affected by daylight. If we move the clocks forward and back twice a year, it throws off those bodily schedules, and it takes a while for them to reset. Personally, I understand it might help reduce electricity usage, though I would like to be done with constantly changing the clocks.
