As the push to make daylight saving time permanent enjoys public support among Americans tired of changing their clocks twice a year, opposition is mounting from groups including sleep doctors, religious groups, school-safety advocates, lawmakers from northern states and, most recently, the ski resort industry. For most Americans, clocks will be set back one hour on November 1, but President Donald Trump has been urging lawmakers to move forward with legislation that would end the twice-yearly clock changes and make daylight saving time permanent. In July, Representative Brett Guthrie said that the push to "lock the clock" was a response to "the advocacy of our constituents and the evidence that year-round daylight saving time boosts economic activity and improves public safety." The issue enjoys bipartisan support in Washington, but as the benefits and pitfalls for different states become clearer, opposition is mounting among some groups.
Among the first to share public opposition to permanent daylight savings were sleep medicine experts. In July, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine praised the introduction of a competing bill that would also end twice yearly clock changes, but would instead establish permanent standard time nationwide. AASM spokesperson Karin Johnson told Newsweek permanent daylight saving time would leave clocks "out of sync with our biology year-round" by shifting light later into the day and reducing exposure to morning sunlight, which helps regulate sleep and alertness.
Johnson said darker winter mornings are especially concerning because in some parts of the country sunrise could occur after 9 a.m., meaning people would be waking up, commuting and starting school or work before daylight. "One of the biggest misconceptions is that making daylight saving time permanent simply means we get to keep the extra hour of evening daylight year-round. But there is a tradeoff," Johnson said.
"For sleep experts, the concern is that permanent daylight saving time would shift our exposure to light later in the day and further misalign our social schedules with our natural circadian rhythms. If the goal is to eliminate the twice-yearly clock changes, we should consider which permanent time system best supports healthy sleep and circadian alignment." Waking up in darkness is a key issue for opposing lawmakers, too. Mary Gay Scanlon is the congressional leader of the push for permanent Standard Time instead of permanent DST.
Scanlon has raised health and safety concerns around dark winter mornings and children traveling to school before sunrise. "We can all understand the appeal of an extra hour of sunlight in the summer, but permanent daylight saving time comes with serious health and safety concerns caused by even darker winter mornings," Scanlon said during a floor debate in July. "Millions of Americans will wake up during the winter months in complete darkness," she said.
"In many parts of the country, children will be waiting for school buses in darkness." Another group raising concerns about the idea of permanent daylight saving time are Orthodox Jewish organizations. Motzen, national director of government affairs at Agudath Israel of America, told Newsweek: "If daylight saving time is made permanent, Jewish religious and professional life will be deeply upended." He explained that the time change would make it "extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible" for Jewish workers to arrive at work by 9 a.m. "We understand the desire to 'lock the clock.' However, we respectfully ask that the administration and Congress carefully consider all of the effects of DST and compare them to the effects of permanent standard time or maintaining the status quo," Motzen said.
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