End the Harmful Time Change Ritual
This deserves loud pushback.
Except for the wise people of Arizona and Hawaii, who have year-round standard time, Americans were once again forced to “spring forward” and lose an hour of sleep on Sunday morning.
This practice, known as daylight-saving time, gives Americans more time in the evening to enjoy sunlight. This helps owners of golf courses, tennis courts, and other outdoor entertainment venues. Conversely, it also forces parents to drive their children to school in the dark.
With the time change, accidents increase, as do health related issues. Losing an hour of sleep disrupts our “body clocks.” As William Shughart II writes in the Miami Herald, daylight-saving time misaligns “our human body clocks with morning sunlight, thereby disrupting circadian rhythms and causing the spikes in heart attacks, strokes, depression and other health problems observed in the days following the one-hour spring and fall time shifts.”
Claims of negative health consequences were verified by a 2008 study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, which identified an increase in heart attacks in the three days following the implementation of daylight-saving time.
Heart attacks are not the only way Americans are dying due to daylight-saving time. In 2020, exhaustive research by professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder determined that there is a 6% increase in fatal automobile accidents in the week following the switch to daylight-saving time. The researchers examined 732,000 automobile accidents over a two-decade period and determined that the accidents caused by daylight-saving time led to the loss of 28 additional lives each year. These are lives that are needlessly lost due to a tradition that has outlived its usefulness.
In 2009, a study was done by researchers at Michigan State University for the Journal of Applied Psychology. It noted that daylight-saving time led to not only a loss of sleep, but also additional workplace injuries. Along with heart attacks, accidents, and workplace injuries, there is undoubtedly a loss of work productivity in the aftermath of forced clock changes and losing an hour of sleep.
Currently, standard time is in place for only four months, from November to March, and we have daylight-saving time for the rest of the year. Prior to 1918, standard time was used year-round. During World War I and World War II, daylight-saving time was implemented as an “energy saving measure.” It was made permanent in 1966 with the passage of the Uniform Time Act. Americans have been suffering from this unnecessary bi-annual time adjustment ever since.
In 1974, America experimented with permanent daylight-saving time for ten months. Eventually, the public turned against it. As Shughart notes, “it quickly lost favor after predawn accidents killed or injured several schoolchildren” and it came to be referred to as “daylight disaster time.” The national popularity of daylight-saving time plunged from 79% to only 42%, so it was abruptly discontinued.
For over five decades, the issue has been continually debated throughout the country and in Congress. Several bills have been introduced to make daylight-saving time permanent. For states to adopt …
This deserves loud pushback.
Except for the wise people of Arizona and Hawaii, who have year-round standard time, Americans were once again forced to “spring forward” and lose an hour of sleep on Sunday morning.
This practice, known as daylight-saving time, gives Americans more time in the evening to enjoy sunlight. This helps owners of golf courses, tennis courts, and other outdoor entertainment venues. Conversely, it also forces parents to drive their children to school in the dark.
With the time change, accidents increase, as do health related issues. Losing an hour of sleep disrupts our “body clocks.” As William Shughart II writes in the Miami Herald, daylight-saving time misaligns “our human body clocks with morning sunlight, thereby disrupting circadian rhythms and causing the spikes in heart attacks, strokes, depression and other health problems observed in the days following the one-hour spring and fall time shifts.”
Claims of negative health consequences were verified by a 2008 study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, which identified an increase in heart attacks in the three days following the implementation of daylight-saving time.
Heart attacks are not the only way Americans are dying due to daylight-saving time. In 2020, exhaustive research by professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder determined that there is a 6% increase in fatal automobile accidents in the week following the switch to daylight-saving time. The researchers examined 732,000 automobile accidents over a two-decade period and determined that the accidents caused by daylight-saving time led to the loss of 28 additional lives each year. These are lives that are needlessly lost due to a tradition that has outlived its usefulness.
In 2009, a study was done by researchers at Michigan State University for the Journal of Applied Psychology. It noted that daylight-saving time led to not only a loss of sleep, but also additional workplace injuries. Along with heart attacks, accidents, and workplace injuries, there is undoubtedly a loss of work productivity in the aftermath of forced clock changes and losing an hour of sleep.
Currently, standard time is in place for only four months, from November to March, and we have daylight-saving time for the rest of the year. Prior to 1918, standard time was used year-round. During World War I and World War II, daylight-saving time was implemented as an “energy saving measure.” It was made permanent in 1966 with the passage of the Uniform Time Act. Americans have been suffering from this unnecessary bi-annual time adjustment ever since.
In 1974, America experimented with permanent daylight-saving time for ten months. Eventually, the public turned against it. As Shughart notes, “it quickly lost favor after predawn accidents killed or injured several schoolchildren” and it came to be referred to as “daylight disaster time.” The national popularity of daylight-saving time plunged from 79% to only 42%, so it was abruptly discontinued.
For over five decades, the issue has been continually debated throughout the country and in Congress. Several bills have been introduced to make daylight-saving time permanent. For states to adopt …
End the Harmful Time Change Ritual
This deserves loud pushback.
Except for the wise people of Arizona and Hawaii, who have year-round standard time, Americans were once again forced to “spring forward” and lose an hour of sleep on Sunday morning.
This practice, known as daylight-saving time, gives Americans more time in the evening to enjoy sunlight. This helps owners of golf courses, tennis courts, and other outdoor entertainment venues. Conversely, it also forces parents to drive their children to school in the dark.
With the time change, accidents increase, as do health related issues. Losing an hour of sleep disrupts our “body clocks.” As William Shughart II writes in the Miami Herald, daylight-saving time misaligns “our human body clocks with morning sunlight, thereby disrupting circadian rhythms and causing the spikes in heart attacks, strokes, depression and other health problems observed in the days following the one-hour spring and fall time shifts.”
Claims of negative health consequences were verified by a 2008 study conducted by the New England Journal of Medicine, which identified an increase in heart attacks in the three days following the implementation of daylight-saving time.
Heart attacks are not the only way Americans are dying due to daylight-saving time. In 2020, exhaustive research by professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder determined that there is a 6% increase in fatal automobile accidents in the week following the switch to daylight-saving time. The researchers examined 732,000 automobile accidents over a two-decade period and determined that the accidents caused by daylight-saving time led to the loss of 28 additional lives each year. These are lives that are needlessly lost due to a tradition that has outlived its usefulness.
In 2009, a study was done by researchers at Michigan State University for the Journal of Applied Psychology. It noted that daylight-saving time led to not only a loss of sleep, but also additional workplace injuries. Along with heart attacks, accidents, and workplace injuries, there is undoubtedly a loss of work productivity in the aftermath of forced clock changes and losing an hour of sleep.
Currently, standard time is in place for only four months, from November to March, and we have daylight-saving time for the rest of the year. Prior to 1918, standard time was used year-round. During World War I and World War II, daylight-saving time was implemented as an “energy saving measure.” It was made permanent in 1966 with the passage of the Uniform Time Act. Americans have been suffering from this unnecessary bi-annual time adjustment ever since.
In 1974, America experimented with permanent daylight-saving time for ten months. Eventually, the public turned against it. As Shughart notes, “it quickly lost favor after predawn accidents killed or injured several schoolchildren” and it came to be referred to as “daylight disaster time.” The national popularity of daylight-saving time plunged from 79% to only 42%, so it was abruptly discontinued.
For over five decades, the issue has been continually debated throughout the country and in Congress. Several bills have been introduced to make daylight-saving time permanent. For states to adopt …
0 Comments
0 Shares
40 Views
0 Reviews
