Mornings in America may soon be earlier than expected.
President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to abolish daylight saving time. This remarkable pledge, if implemented, would dramatically change life in the United States during the spring and summer months, when Americans traditionally enjoy the sun’s rays well into the night.
Summer time tends to slow down the daylight hours, resulting in wonderfully long, bright days in spring and summer. Standard Time means there will be more sunlight earlier in the day, and kids won’t be trudging to school in the dark of cold weather.
President Trump’s proposal to abolish daylight saving time, long believed to be supported by American corporate interests, has surprised the medical community, which has long called for standard time to become full-time. Opponents of daylight saving time argue that daylight saving time can cause mood disorders, adverse cardiovascular events, and the risk of car accidents.
Dr. Kin Yuen, a neurologist and sleep expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said that despite the president-elect’s Truth Social posts clearly stating his desire to abolish daylight savings time. , said she and a similar group of standard time supporters remain not completely confident in Trump’s pledge. .
“I think we were all pretty incredulous,” Yuen told NBC News this week, days after Trump’s post. “Yes, we are overjoyed. We hope to ride this wave and hopefully draw more attention and point out the health benefits of adopting a permanent standard time. Masu.”
The way Americans adjust their clocks twice a year is outlined in the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which sets the parameters for daylight saving time.
America recently returned to standard time on November 7th of this year.
During standard time during the fall and winter months, Americans enjoy approximately 9 to 11 hours of sunlight per day. It usually starts between 6:30am and 7:30am.
Daylight saving time will next begin on March 9, 2025, with 11 to 15 hours of daylight per day and the start of spring and summer, often starting between 5:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.
“There’s a growing chance that we won’t need to change our clocks anymore,” says Dr. Nathaniel Watson, a longtime proponent of perpetual standard time and a neurologist at the University of Washington Medical Sleep Center.
“But there’s a confusion that says, ‘Let’s not change our clocks; the only way to do that is to go to permanent daylight saving time,’ and that’s actually not the case. It should be standard time.”
If the United States maintained standard time all year round, during the warmer months the sun’s rays would hit your bedroom curtains in the unaccustomed early morning hours, perhaps between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m.
And in late summer, the sun sets earlier than standard time.
During the summer, baseball games that start at 7 p.m. often absorb several rounds of sunlight and twilight under daylight saving time. However, if that same summer night game were played on standard time, the sun’s light might only fade for an inning or two before the stadium lights were fully on.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine formally endorsed the annual standard time in 2020, and the American Academy of Neurology joined that position in 2023.
Doctors support universal standard time, saying the human body functions normally while awake for 16 hours a day, and it’s best to plan activities around solar noon, when the sun is highest in the sky. said.
Most months in standard time, solar noon is closer to 12:00 PM on the wall clock. However, during daylight saving time, the midpoint is typically after 1:00 p.m.
Additionally, employees and students with 9-to-5 schedules will find themselves waking up an hour earlier than their bodies would like to accommodate midday.
“So when you’re forcing your body to wake up much earlier, you’re essentially telling your body, ‘I need to wake up an hour earlier for work and school.’ That’s why I hate mornings.” Dr. Karin Johnson, a neurologist and sleep expert at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Massachusetts;
“So if we had daylight saving time (year-round), we’d hate mornings even more.”
For those worried about the sun shining through their window shades just hours after stumbling home from their local bar, Johnson says the inconvenience is worth the price to better synchronize your circadian rhythms. He said it was a small price to pay.
“Do we need a 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. sunrise? No, none of us want that,” she said. “But you can sleep face down. What we need is for the sun to align with our bodies (in standard time).”
President Trump’s announcement was also surprising because it appeared to contradict national sentiment and the leaders of his own party.
Two years ago, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill to implement daylight saving time year-round, but the bill stalled from there.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), whom President Trump nominated to be secretary of state, is one of the bill’s sponsors and an active supporter of daylight saving time.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHF), which is funded by insurance companies, has been advocating year-round daylight savings time for years.
The group says improved visibility during after-work and evening driving hours can save lives.
“We know there is a strong relationship between increased darkness and fatal crashes, especially for pedestrians and cyclists,” IIHF spokesman Joseph Young said in a statement this week.
“If daylight saving time is left in place, the sun sets earlier in the summer, which is very likely to result in more road user fatalities.”
According to the IIHF, if the U.S. were to flip the switch to turn off daylight saving time, extensive infrastructure upgrades would be required.
“As daylight saving time ends, communities will need to think even more seriously about how to improve the safety of people on foot,” Young said. “Improved lighting and infrastructure, reduced vehicle speeds and other changes that are already desperately needed will become even more important.”
Some business people support daylight savings time, believing it could increase after-work business if it’s not too dark.
A representative for Mr. Rubio could not be reached for comment Monday, but a spokesperson for the National Retail Federation said his organization has no official position on daylight saving time.
The few polls conducted over the years about daylight saving time and standard time seem to have slight support for daylight saving time.
When YouGov asked this question in March 2023, 50% of respondents said they supported permanent daylight saving time, while only 31% said they wanted standard time all year round. .
“The Daylight Saving Time marketing department, which of course has close ties to industry, did a much better job than we did,” said UCSF’s Dr. Yuen.
“Regardless of whether we have daylight saving time or not, there will naturally be more daylight (during months with daylight saving time). It’s just longer days. And I think the flip side is that we can do better marketing to convince people that they’re on daylight saving time. I guess I need a reminder that I’m sitting in the darkness of a winter school. ”
The United States temporarily introduced year-round daylighting in 1974-1975, in hopes of slowing daylight hours and reducing energy use during the OPEC oil embargo. However, introducing daylight savings time in the winter was extremely unpopular, resulting in children climbing to school in the dark, and was quickly scrapped.
Dr. Johnson is convinced that poll respondents who oppose permanent standard time are confusing daylight saving time with the fun times of spring break and summer vacation, and are forgetting that year-round daylight saving time was rejected in 1974. He said there was.
“There’s a huge (emotional) connection between summer and daylight saving time,” Johnson said. “Sure, we like warm weather and long days, but we have tried permanent daylight saving time before, the last time in 1974, and it worked. I didn’t go.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) said he was happy to support President Trump’s push for year-round standard time, recalling bad memories of 1974.
“Congress once made daylight saving time permanent. It was so unpopular that Congress abolished it after less than a year.” he said in a statement. “The only sensible and permanent way to end semiannual time changes is to make standard time permanent.”
The biggest response in the 2003 YouGov poll appears to come from people who don’t want to change their clocks in either direction, with 62% of respondents saying they simply want to abolish either standard time or daylight saving time. 31% said they didn’t care either way. Both as is.
NBC News’ Alexandra Marquez and Helen Kwon contributed.
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