US House of Representatives takes step to make daylight saving time permanent

throw0101d

Perhaps worth noting that most medical and sleep/circadian research folks want permanent standard time: * https://www.ama-assn.org/press-center/press-releases/ama-cal... * https://www.labmanager.com/new-position-statement-supports-p... * http://www.chronobiology.ch/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/JBR-D... * https://www.chronobiology.com/impact-daylight-saving-time-ci... * https://esrs.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/To_the_EU_Commiss... * https://www.chronobiocanada.com/official-statements * https://srbr.org/advocacy/daylight-saving-time-presskit/ * https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10476036/ * https://old.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/dq2nv3/ > The authors take the position that, based on comparisons of large populations living in DST or ST or on western versus eastern edges of time zones, the advantages of permanent ST outweigh switching to DST annually or permanently. Four peer reviewers provided expert critiques of the initial submission, and the SRBR Executive Board approved the revised manuscript as a Position Paper to help educate the public in their evaluation of current legislative actions to end DST. […] The choice of DST is political and therefore can be changed. If we want to improve human health, we should not fight against our body clock, and therefore, we should abandon DST and return to Standard Time (which is when the sun clock time most closely matches the social clock time) throughout the year. This solution would fix both the acute and the chronic problems of DST. We therefore strongly support removing DST changes or removing permanent DST and having governing organizations choose permanent Standard Time for the health and safety of their citizens. * https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/07487304198541... Recent US public opinion: > As the March 9 [2025] switch to daylight saving time (DST) approaches in the U.S., the majority of Americans (54%) say they are ready to do away with the practice. By contrast, 40% of U.S. adults say they are in favor of daylight saving time, while 6% are uncertain. […] > The plurality of Americans, 48%, say they would prefer to have standard time the whole year, including summer. Half as many, 24%, prefer having daylight saving time in place the whole year, including winter. The smallest percentage, 19%, prefer the status quo of switching between the two each year. * https://news.gallup.com/poll/657584/half-daylight-saving-tim...

damnesian

Studies have been conducted about the safety of sticking to one time. The ones who are the most vulnerable are kids waiting for buses in the dark. We can't move to dynamic school times because we are still working the same paradigm as the industrial revolution- same schedule every day, year in year out. And society is simply too divided and fractured, and the motives too hidden and craven, to decide to move en masse to a dynamic schedule.

BeetleB

> and put the US under time currently observed between March and November - known as permanent standard time. Was that a typo?

gwbas1c

Am I the only person who thinks its odd that my government (US) thinks its can tell me what time to get up and go to bed? Before timezones, "noon" was the point where the sun was the highest in the sky. It seems we should focus on having our timezones be more in line with what "noon" is supposed to be: IE, major population centers should have "noon" close to true noon, with a little more flexibility for rural areas so they can stay on the same time as their closest major population center.

Sindisil

As usual, when Congress finally moves to address an issue, they manage to do it in the stupidest possible way. Permanent Standard Time is the better choice in nearly every way.

bsimpson

Glad to see progress made on this. In my 20s, I strongly considered taking some time off to create and drive petitions across the Pacific states to put us all on permanent PDT (matching Arizona). In my research, I saw it would take an act of Congress to make that happen, so I stood down.

7777777phil

Wasn’t this already tried at least once and then reverted some 2 years later?

jmuguy

Maybe they'll actually do it this time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_time_observation_in_...

slackfan

This is fine, provided we add the extra necessary time zone.

Georgelemental

Boo, hiss. Permanent Standard Time is better in every way https://savestandardtime.com/

ksec

I wonder if UK will follow as well.

WarmWash

Permanent standard time means less sunlight time after work. Permanent DST means kids walking to school in the dark. Changing the clock twice a year fixes that and lets us avoid both, with the only cost being people complaining for a day afterwards. It's like ripping off the bandaid, instead of doing a slow agonizing pull that lasts months. And yes, I know some people take like 6 weeks to adjust and they will complain incessantly to stop it, but for the whole group, the least painful thing (I'd argue by far) is just moving the clock an hour.

johnohara

In the upper midwest, daylight savings time generally gives way to tractor-mounted LED time as contracted harvesting companies switch into high production to beat the late-fall rain.

flying4781

The engineer in me wants standard time, but the human in me wants daylight time.

jcranmer

Permanent DST sounds good to a lot of people, until they actually experience it. The US went on permanent DST in the 1970s and support plummeted after the first winter in DST (which is why we're not on it anymore). Of course, since it was 50 years ago, that means most people alive in the US don't remember the days of permanent DST. The problem, I think, is that what a lot of people want is they want the sun to set quite late, like it does in summer time. But DST isn't going to give you those long summer afternoons in winter, because the sun just isn't up long enough; and the trade-off you'd make for maybe coming off work into the start of dusk is that dawn would start after you start working, which turns out to be pretty bad for your circadian rhythm.

water-data-dude

The only time the Sunshine Protection Act has passed the senate was when gosh danged Tom Cotton wasn't there[0]. I swear, he's in the pocket of Big Time[1]. [0] https://www.mediaite.com/politics/that-daylight-saving-time-... [1] https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/speeches/floor-speech-on-...

Auracle

For night owls and teenagers, who already have a hard time in society, Daylight Saving Time makes things far worse. It’s been tried and failed, already, primarily due to school/kids issues. The sun will rise really, really late in the dead of winter in some places. Sleep experts are all pretty much in agreement that permanent Standard Time is better. I’d be all for permanent Standard Time but there’s no way that’ll happen with the old people in charge of our government. Most of them probably wake up at 4am already.

baal80spam

Nice, congrats US! EU promises to stop this madness every year for the last 6 years, and apparently it's impossible.

tantalor

We should really standardize on Time Cube https://www.timecube.net/