The Associated Press (“AP News”) reports that President-elect Donald J. Trump expressed on Truth Social yesterday (12/13/2024) that he would push the GOP to end Daylight Saving Time (“DST”) during his upcoming presidency, stating that “[t]he Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate [DST], which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t! [DST] is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximize daylight during summer months, but has long been subject to scrutiny. DST was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.
The AP News article may be read in its entirety HERE.
The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (“JCSM”) published an abstract authored by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (“AASM”) on January 1, 2024. The AASM abstract takes the position that DST is not optimal from a health perspective and should be eliminated.
In 2020, the AASM advocated for the elimination of seasonal change to and from DST. As evidence supporting this position continued to grow, the National Sleep Foundation, Sleep Research Society, American Medical Association, and other professional societies also voiced support for the establishment of permanent Standard Time (“ST”) to optimize health and safety. In fact, the European Union’s Parliament voted to eliminate mandatory DST in 2021 and Mexico went even further, eliminating DST completely in 2022.
Human activities are affected by three clocks: 1) the internal biological rhythm (AKA: the circadian clock); 2) the solar clock; and 3) the social clock, which dictates when activities such as school and work begin and end. Under ideal conditions, all three clocks would be aligned to allow for optimal health and performance.
The human biological clock is regulated by the timing of light and darkness, which then dictates sleep and wake rhythms. In daily life, the timing of exposure to light is generally linked to the social clock. When the solar clock is misaligned with the social clock, desynchronization occurs between the internal circadian rhythm and the social clock. The yearly change between ST and DST introduces this misalignment, which has been associated with risks to physical and mental health and safety, as well as risks to public health.
The JCSM article may be read in its entirety HERE.
The Hill published an article on October 19, 2024, reporting that experts believed doing away with DST and sticking with ST was ‘undeniably’ better for us.
Permanent ST is undeniably the best option for our health if you believe in science, according to Dr. Alaina Tiani, a clinical health psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic’s Sleep Disorder Center. Dr. Tiani says that a major benefit to year-round ST is the amount of daylight we would get in the mornings and that “having more of that light exposure at those earlier times is essentially better for our body’s rhythms.”
When the United States ‘falls back’ in November, sunrises slide forward by an hour and for some parts of the country, it means that sunrises move from the 7 o’clock hour to the 6 o’clock hour. If the United States were to stay on DST year-round, sunrises would be much later, nearing 9:00 AM in some areas.
The Hill article may be read in its entirety HERE.
My brothers and sisters, to the best of this writer’s knowledge, the Bible doesn’t specifically address the issue of time zones, but it certainly instructs us to operate in godly wisdom, seeking God’s will in all matters:
Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, [a]nd lean not on your own understanding; [i]n all your ways acknowledge Him, [a]nd He shall direct your paths.”
Proverbs 3:13 (ESV)
Blessed Is the One Who Finds Wisdom
“Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding…”.
James 1:5 (NKJV)
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”
