Now that our clocks are back where they belong, let’s leave them alone.
Think of standard time as natural time and the reasons become self-evident.
Your body’s circadian rhythm or internal clock was preset over millions of years by the rising and setting of the sun. It controls not just when you sleep, and how well, but also how you think and cope with stress — indeed, your overall health.
The all-too-familiar misery of jet lag exemplifies the power of circadian rhythm. So do the mortality and morbidity tables.
“A range of health problems are associated with out-of-sync circadian rhythms, including obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, high blood pressure and cancer,” explains the Sleep Doctor website.
No politicians can change that, no matter how they fool with resetting the clocks.
The almighty dollar, naturally
Daylight Saving Time (DST), originally adopted as a World War I measure on both sides of the Atlantic, no longer conserves much energy, if it ever did.
It mainly helps golf courses, amusement parks, fast food restaurants, convenience stores and other businesses that profit from later sunsets but have little to lose from darker mornings.
Their coalition was credited — or blamed — with twice persuading Congress to extend DST so that it now lasts eight months rather than the original six.
And they’re likely involved in the renewed push in Congress to do away with the twice-a-year clock resetting by making DST permanent.
Sick and tired, literally
Florida Sen. Rick Scott is the lead sponsor of a so-called Sunshine Protection Act that would do this.
“The American people are sick and tired of changing their clocks twice a year,” said Scott, who recently tried to bypass the committee system by asking the Senate for unanimous consent on his bill. That worked for Marco Rubio three years ago, but wiser senators weren’t asleep this time.
Americans are sick of clock-switching — literally and emotionally. Some die from spikes in strokes, heart attacks and traffic crashes, more often in springtime than fall.
Recent polls show the public firmly opposed to the clock-switching, but mixed as to whether DST or standard time should prevail year-round.
The differences may owe to what time of year the question is asked.
A Gallup poll last March, before the time switch, favored retaining standard time. An Associated Press-NORC poll last month favored keeping DST.
The scientific consensus clearly supports permanent standard time.
Reducing strokes, obesity
A study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that permanent standard time would prevent some 300,000 strokes every year and save 2.6 million people from becoming obese. Permanent DST, the study said, would be only two-thirds as effective.
And for what? Once again, good health is at a disadvantage in the halls of Congress for lack of a potent lobby. The quantifiable economic advantages, however short-term, are on the other side.
The permanent DST bills have bipartisan support, but among Florida’s delegation, only Republicans have co-sponsored the House version of Scott’s bill. They are Reps. Aaron Bean, Vern Buchanan, Mike Haridopolos, Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, John Rutherford and Daniel Webster.
None was in office, nor was Scott, the last time Congress tried to make DST permanent in reaction to the Arab oil embargo of 1973. It proved too unpopular to keep — in large part because of the risk to children waiting for school buses in dark winter mornings.
States are entitled to exempt themselves and keep standard time year-round, but only Hawaii and Arizona have acted. Florida should, but its Legislature voted for permanent DST, which would depend on Scott’s bill passing.
He has the wrong solution to a real problem. Permanent DST might be somewhat better from a public health standpoint than to continue switching the clocks twice a year. But the scientific evidence strongly favors year-round standard time, and that is what should guide Congress.
Sleep “is a biological necessity, not a luxury,” as Bruce Forman, a psychologist specializing in the subject, wrote on this Opinion page on Oct. 30.
As he argued, our health depends on Congress heeding that truth.
There’s no political consensus, as President Trump realized before withdrawing from the debate. What usually suits Congress in such an event is to do nothing. That’s wrong, too. The only right solution is permanent standard time.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
