06/06/2026
Circadian Sleep Disorders Network is considering whether to formally recommend permanent standard time.
Everybody seems to hate the clock change, especially in spring. But whether to be permanently on standard time or daylight saving time? On daylight saving time you're getting up an hour earlier, relative to the day-night (light-dark) cycle. So it would seem a bit easier, for DSPD people, to be permanently on standard time. I know it's easier for me to make a 2:00 doctor appointment when we're on standard time than on daylight saving. And it shouldn't matter to Non-24s as long as we don't switch twice a year.
Yes, we all love having it be light later in summer. And we hate that it gets dark so early in winter. It will feel that way regardless of whether we're on standard time or daylight saving. But changing the clock to permanent daylight saving time, and forcing us to get up earlier (relative to the light-dark cycle), for work or school, doesn't seem like the best answer. And in much of the country it means sending kids to school in the dark in winter, or driving to work in the dark, so that the public will rebel -- as it did when permanent DST was tried in 1974 -- and just revert to the prior schedule with twice a year clock changes.
There are demonstrable health benefits to standard time, as can be inferred by comparing the eastern and western ends of the same time zone. In the eastern end the sun rises and sets earlier; the western end is more like being on daylight saving time. So, for example:
"People on the late side of sunset across U.S. time zones were 11 percent more likely, on average, to be overweight and 21 percent more likely to be obese. Diabetes was more prevalent.... Breast cancer rates were slightly elevated, too — about 5 percent higher than average."
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/19/how-living-wrong-side-time-zone-can-be-hazardous-your-health/, Christopher Ingraham, "How living on the wrong side of a time zone can be hazardous to your health", Washington Post 4/19/19. Includes references to the peer-reviewed research.)
Some research papers on this topic are listed at https://circadiansleepdisorders.org/info.php . Other sleep organizations are also in favor of year-round daylight saving time:
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) position statement indicates that “current evidence best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.” The statement was endorsed by more than 20 medical, scientific, and civic organizations, including the American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, National PTA, National Safety Council, Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, and World Sleep Society.
(https://aasm.org/aasm-statement-senate-daylight-saving-time-sunshine-protection-act/, "AASM statement on Senate passage of permanent daylight saving time bill", American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2022)
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