This position statement was submitted by Save Standard Time on Apr 7, 2022.
Dear Honorable Representatives,
Please reject calls to retry permanent Daylight Saving Time, a policy that has repeatedly failed with loss of money and lives. Please instead restore permanent Standard Time, for lasting health, safety, education, and prosperity.
Professional polling shows strong public support to end clock change, with preference for Standard Time.[AP] Permanent Standard Time can be restored by striking just one paragraph from the Uniform Time Act (15 USC §260a). Standard Time preserves the morning sunlight needed daily by human biology. Its benefits to circadian health improve immunity, longevity, mood, alertness, and performance at school and work. They prevent traffic deaths, lower crime, and reduce chronic illnesses.[AASM][Juda][SRBR] Standard Time protects start times for schoolchildren, farmers, and most working adults, by letting citizens sleep naturally past sunrise year-round.[Borisenkov][Cell][Schlanger][Skeldon]
Scores of organizations, representing millions of researchers, doctors, teachers, parents, and community leaders worldwide, oppose DST and endorse permanent Standard Time. Among these are the American College of Chest Physicians, National Safety Council, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, National Sleep Foundation, National PTA, American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Start School Later, Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, and many more state, national, and international groups.[AASM][CSS][NSF][SRBR]
Permanent DST would require rewriting nearly the entire Uniform Time Act. It would also force constituents to wake an hour early relative to sunrise, every workday from November through March. It would artificially delay sunrises past 8:45am in most states, and past 8am up to 3.9 months in most states. Historically, support for permanent DST reverses into opposition when experienced. Permanent DST has failed several times; it cost American children’s lives in 1974.[BBC][Ripley][Yorkshire] No law can make winter feel like summer.
Moving clocks to DST acutely deprives sleep. Leaving clocks on DST chronically deprives sleep (estimated average 19 minutes nightly).[Giuntella][Roenneberg] Artificial delay of sunrise by one hour continually manifests as significant increases in accidents, disease (certain cancers up 12–36%), and healthcare costs, and as significant decreases in learning, productivity, and earnings (individual wages down 3–5%).[Gibson][Giuntella][Gu][Roenneberg] It’s not just clock change that harms, but also DST’s forced early waking. Permanent Standard Time instead lets people sleep longer.[AASM][Juda][SRBR] It’s the natural time, defined by the sun.
Please hear the consensus of doctors, teachers, polling, and history. Save time, money, and lives. End clock change, yes—but only with permanent Standard Time.
Sincerely,
Jay Pea
President
jay@savestandardtime.com
American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2020). “Call for Elimination of Daylight Saving Time”. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. https://aasm.org/american-academy-of-sleep-medicine-calls-for-elimination-of-daylight-saving-time/
AP-NORC (2021). “Dislike for Changing the Clocks Persists”. Center for Public Affairs Research. https://apnorc.org/projects/dislike-for-changing-the-clocks-persists/
BBC (2014). “Russia: Putin Abolishes ‘Daylight Savings’ Time Change”. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28423647
Borisenkov et al (2016). “Seven-Year Survey of Sleep Timing in Russian Children and Adolescents”. Biological Rhythm Research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307547013_Seven-year_survey_of_sleep_timing_in_Russian_children_and_adolescents_chronic_1-h_forward_transition_of_social_clock_is_associated_with_increased_social_jetlag_and_winter_pattern_of_mood_seasonality
Canadian Sleep Society (2021). “Position Statement of the Canadian Sleep Society on the Practice of Daylight Saving Time”. Canadian Sleep Society News. https://css-scs.ca/position-statement-of-the-canadian-sleep-society-on-the-practice-of-daylight-saving-time-dst/
Cell Press (2019). “Permanent Daylight Savings May Cancel Out Changes to School Start Times”. EurekAlert!. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/cp-pds041819.php
Gibson & Shrader (2015). “Time Use and Productivity: The Wage Returns to Sleep”. Williams College Department of Economics Working Papers. https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wilwileco/2015-17.htm
Giuntella & Mazzonna (2017). “Sunset Time and the Economic Effects of Social Jetlag Evidence from US Time Zone Borders”. Journal of Health Economics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629618309718
Gu et al (2017). “Longitude Position in a Time Zone and Cancer Risk in the United States”. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. https://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/26/8/1306
Jin & Ziebarth (2019). “Sleep, Health, and Human Capital: Evidence from Daylight Saving Time”. The National Bureau of Economic Research. https://ideas.repec.org/p/yor/hectdg/15-27.html
Juda et al (2019). “An Open Letter to the BC Government in Support of Permanent Standard Time”. Simon Fraser University. https://vault.sfu.ca/index.php/s/sAnv3Z4bcSwY4Gm
National Sleep Foundation (2021). “Permanent Standard Time: A Position Statement from the National Sleep Foundation”. NSF Issues. https://www.thensf.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/NSF-Position-on-Permanent-Standard-Time.pdf
Ripley (1974). “Senate Votes Return to Standard Time for Four Months and Sends Bill to Ford”. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/01/archives/senate-votes-return-to-standard-time-for-four-months-and-sends-bill.html
Roenneberg et al (2019). “Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones – A Battle Between Biological and Social Times”. Frontiers in Physiology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944/full
Schlanger (2017). “Daylight Saving Time as Americans Know It Was Instituted by Corporate Lobbies, Not Farmers”. Quartz. https://qz.com/1120488/daylight-saving-time-as-americans-know-it-was-instituted-by-corporate-lobbies-not-farmers/
Skeldon & Dijk (2019). “School Start Times and Daylight Saving Time Confuse California Lawmakers”. Current Biology. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30312-4
Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (2019). “Why Should We Abolish Daylight Saving Time?”. Journal of Biological Rhythms. https://srbr.org/advocacy/daylight-saving-time-presskit/
Yorkshire (2018). “British Summer Time: Why Do We Change the Clocks?”. Yorkshire Evening Post. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-summer-time-why-do-we-change-clocks-313791
