Today was supposed to be the day the Sunshine Protection Act, a federal law that would make daylight saving time permanent, was planned to go into effect. The bill was unanimously passed the U.S Senate in 2022 but never made it to a vote in the House. Similar bills were introduced in the House and Senate this year but are currently languishing commerce committees.
A study published last year in the journal Current Biology found a permanent shift to daylight saving $1.2 billion annual savings. The study also found vehicular collisions with deer increase 16% in the week following clock change in the fall.
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We spend about a third of the year observing daylight saving. What would extending that to the entire year look like compared to the current method of changing our clocks twice a year? What would spending the entire year on standard time look like? Something in between? What choice is best best?
If you prefer more sunlight after work or school, you're on team daylight saving. If you rather see more sunlight in the early hours of the day, you're on team standard time.
Before digging deeper into the best way to observe daylight saving or not even not observe it at all, important to note that the length of the day, or amount of time the Sun is above the horizon, is unchanged. These systems shift where we place those daylight hours on the clock.
Getting up before the Sun
For someone waking up in Raleigh around 7 a.m. the Sun is already above the horizon 212 days out of the year. Permanent standard time would add another 70 days of daylight wake-ups, permanent daylight saving would make 42 more sunrises available to you.
current sytem | permanent daylight saving | permanent standard time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| earliest | 5:58 am | 5:58 am | 4:48 am |
latest | 7:39 am | 8:25 am | 7:25 |
| sunrises before 7 a.m. | 212 | 170 (42 fewer) | 282 (70 more) |
One concern parents have expressed is what the time shift will do daylight at the bus stop in the morning. While observing standard time year round would bring earlier sunrises earlier in the spring, this would only add a few days of sunrises before 7 a.m.
Wake County Public Schools 2023-2024 traditional calendar ends on the day of the earliest sunrise.
Moving sunsets later on the clock
Daylight saving shifts daylight into the hours after work and school.
The practice was originally introduced during World War I as an energy saving measure. The same law established the time zones we use across the U.S. today. War Time was implemented again in 1942, again to save energy.
Permanent daylight saving would ensure the Sun never set on Raleigh before 6 p.m. It would also bring another 19 sunsets after 7 p.m. Permanent standard time would bring about 3 months worth of sunsets before 7 p.m.
| current system | permanent daylight saving | permanent standard time | |
|---|---|---|---|
| earliest | 5:00 pm | 6:00 pm | 5:00 pm |
| latest | 8:34 pm | 8:34 pm | 7:34 pm |
| sunsets after 7 p.m. | 204 | 223 (19 more) | 111 (93 fewer) |
But the benefit most proponents of an end to changing our clocks twice a year is getting rid of the changes themselves. The time shift disrupts circadian rhythms and sleep impacting physical and mental health. Health studies have found increase risk of strokes and heart attacks in the days following a time change.
A study published in Current Biology found a 16% increase in traffic accidents
The 30 minutes compromise
Some have suggested, though none officially, a compromise between permanent standard and permanent daylight saving time. This would put Raleigh 4 hours and 30 minutes behind Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This seems odd at first but there are several timezones offset in increments of 30 minutes.
Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Newfoundland, some regions of Australia, Venezuela, and the Marquesas Islands are offset by several hours and 30 minutes. Nepal, Chatham Islands, and some regions of Australia offset by several hours plus 45 minutes.
Permanently changing the Eastern timezone to be 4:30 behind UTC would deliver 227 sunrises to Raleigh before 7 a.m., 196 sunsets before 7 p.m. Sunrises would range between 5:28 a.m. in mid June to 7:55 am in early January.