Poll Shows Majority Of Americans Want To End Daylight Saving Time Issues
Feb 23, 2020, 12:17 PM | Updated: 12:18 pm
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SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Should the United States end Daylight Saving Time? Should it do away with Standard Time? Or should it keep going as it has since it was formally adopted in 1918?
The majority of Americans want the biannual practice of changing clocks to come to an end, according to an AP-NORC Poll.
The poll, conducted in October 2019, found that 71% of people want to keep their clocks steady year-round, while only 28% of people said they want to continue “springing forward” and “falling back” twice each year.
For those who advocate doing away changing clocks, though, there’s still the issue of whether to stay on Standard Time, or keep the clocks on Daylight Saving Time.
More people – 40% – say they want to stay on Standard Time. Thirty-one percent said they’d rather stay on Daylight Saving Time throughout the year.
The decision on which to choose would depend on a person’s preference to have more daylight during morning hours or during the evening hours.
While switching time by an hour may seem innocuous, it actually impact health negatively, according to research.
Dr. phyllis Zee, a sleep researcher at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said that changing time interrupts sleep schedules and can exacerbate problems sleep-deprived people already suffer. This can be especially prominent in teens, which can result in about a loss of 2½ hours of sleep.
The change in time has also shown to create heart problems, and studies have also linked Daylight Saving Time switches to an increase in car crashes.
In Utah, lawmakers have been trying to get rid of the practice for years. A bill in the 2020 legislative session, SB 59, has been moving forward in the state Senate. Last year, Rep. Rob Bishop sponsored a bill called the “Daylight Act,” which ultimately failed.
States can choose to remain on Standard Time all year round under federal law. Only two states – Hawaii and Arizona – currently keep their clocks on Standard Time throughout the year.
