Do we spring forward in 2024? There’s been a debate for years to push daylight savings time to be a year-round. Daylight saving time begins Sunday,, March 10th, pushing clocks forward an hour to 2 am, taking an hour of sleep away so we can spring forward. The debate is essentially trying to get rid of Daylight Saving Time, having more daylight hours all season round.
“State legislatures have considered at least 550 bills and resolutions in recent years to establish year-round daylight saving time as soon as federal law allows it,” the National Conference of State Legislature website says. Almost 30 states have considered pushing daylight savings to be year-round. Without The Sunshine Protection Act getting approval from the House of Representatives or President Biden himself, then the fight will continue. In 2023, it was okayed by the U.S. Senate.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 mandates the country to use daylight savings time but allows states to exempt themselves from staying on standard time all year round. It does not allow the state to permanently establish daylight savings time. For some states, they are willing to go forward with it as long as a few of their neighboring states do the same.
If the change would happen, it would occur during our summer months. Without having to change our clock, we would stop worrying about losing an hour of sleep, feeling tired after springing forward, or remembering to change the time on our watches or clocks. “It would benefit industries like restaurants that operate in the evening. With an extra hour of daylight into the night, demand for dining out, hotels, entertainment, and other services could see a useful boost,” according to Yahoo Finance.
The con essentially would be that daylight savings time doesn’t align with our natural circadian rhythms. “Our sleep schedules are guided by the Earth’s light and dark cycle. If we shift to darker mornings and lighter evenings our sleep schedules would be thrown out of whack, a long-term issue with long-term implications,” says USA Today.
The fight will continue until it has approval from the House of Representatives or Biden himself. Congress would need to repeal the law for the U.S. to stop using daylight saving time.
