Fall back this weekend: Is the end in sight for our semi-annual clock ritual?
Early Sunday morning, we'll shift our clocks for the second time this year, now falling back an hour to return to standard time.
In the face of ongoing federal legislation, the practice may not last much longer.
Alongside nationwide momentum to either abandon daylight saving time or embrace it permanently, advocates argue the century-old practice disrupts our sleep schedules, creates confusion and can even be blamed for thousands of deer collisions each year.
“This is something I get feedback about from constituents twice a year, very routinely, as people express their disapproval of having to change their clocks,” said state Rep. Daniel Didech, a Buffalo Grove Democrat.
Didech co-sponsored state legislation in 2021 that would have exempted Illinois from the federal Uniform Time Act of 1966 provisions that established daylight saving time, effectively doing away with the practice.
“When you disrupt everybody's circadian rhythm, it affects wakefulness. It can have potential health consequences for people,” Didech said. “I think the data is conclusive enough that it makes sense to either get rid of daylight saving time or make it permanent, and I think there's arguments on both sides, but most importantly it would be good public policy to stop changing the clocks twice a year.”
Health experts say altering the time twice each year has led to a variety of health problems, triggered when our internal body clocks fall out of sync with the sun. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional society dedicated to the medical subspecialty of sleep medicine, supports a year-round national standard time.
According to a study released this week, year-round daylight saving time would additionally prevent thousands of deer collisions each year, saving about $1.2 billion in collision costs.
Moreover, the study, published Wednesday in the journal Current Biology, predicts that reducing the amount of time that rush-hour traffic takes place during darkness would prevent 33 deaths and some 2,000 injuries among people annually.
Daylight saving time began as early as 1918 as a method to fit in more daylight hours and conserve energy during World War I. The practice has since expanded to control the clock for roughly eight months of the year — though critics have called into question how effective DST energy savings have been.
Over the last four years, 19 states have either enacted legislation or passed a resolution opting for year-round daylight saving time, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Illinois has never passed such legislation, though the legislature did get close in 2019 when the Senate passed a bill to permanently embrace daylight saving time.
Even for the states that have passed laws to make the switch, federal law does not currently allow full-time DST, and Congress would have to act before states could adopt the change.
In March this year, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed legislation titled the Sunshine Protection Act to do just that. If passed by the House and signed by the president, the bill would move standard time forward by one hour, beginning November 2023.
“We don't have to keep doing this stupidity anymore. Why we would enshrine this in our laws and keep it for so long is beyond me,” bill co-sponsor Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said on the Senate floor in March. “Hopefully, this is the year that this gets done. And pardon the pun, but this is an idea whose time has come.”
For 2022, daylight saving time officially ends at 2 a.m. Sunday. Except for Hawaii and Arizona, which each follow standard time, every state and the District of Columbia will set their clocks back this weekend.
• Jenny Whidden is a Report For America corps member covering climate change and the environment for the Daily Herald. To help support her work, click here to make a tax-deductible donation.