{"id":209173,"date":"2026-03-07T16:29:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209173\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T16:29:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:29:22","slug":"daylight-saving-time-harms-health-poses-safety-risks-but-ending-it-is-complicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/209173\/","title":{"rendered":"Daylight saving time harms health, poses safety risks, but ending it is complicated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Daylight saving time will see the clock spring forward by one hour on March 8, 2026. (Photo by Thomas Murphy \/ Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Losing that hour of sleep on Sunday won\u2019t just be unpleasant \u2014 it can be dangerous.<\/p>\n

Research shows the clock change for Daylight Saving Time increases heart attacks, strokes and motor vehicle crashes.<\/p>\n

Dr. Emily Manoogian at the Salk Institute<\/a> studies circadian rhythms \u2014 your internal clocks that regulate sleep, eating and activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an acute one-hour shift, that\u2019s what most people feel and really don\u2019t like. Our body is filled with clocks that coordinate everything we do, but we can\u2019t shift a full hour overnight. That shift could be the tipping point,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Emily Manoogian researches circadian rhythms at the Salk Institute. (Photo by Thomas Murphy\/Times of San Diego)<\/p>\n

Motor vehicle accidents increase by 6%<\/a> after the spring forward, with early morning commuters in the western U.S. facing the highest risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of us are already not getting enough sleep. One extra hour of sleep deprivation leads to foggy thinking and promotes accidents,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

How does society\u2019s schedule affect our bodies?<\/p>\n

Light tells the body what time it is. The brain\u2019s roughly 24-hour clock, located in the hypothalamus, regulates systems that keep us alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the summer, you wake up when it\u2019s dark out and get light way too late. You have a misalignment of light, your schedule, and the clock on the wall. It\u2019s difficult for the body to adjust,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

What could replace daylight saving time?<\/p>\n

Many major scientific organizations support ending daylight saving time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong science, there\u2019s always different opinions on things. This is not debated. If you look at any scientific body, they all say we should be on permanent standard time. There is no scientific basis for daylight saving time, either permanently or part of the year,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

Permanent standard time would do away with changing clocks, matching society\u2019s schedule with the body\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows us to wake up with the light and get enough darkness to go to bed,\u201d said Manoogian. \u201cWe can align our internal clocks with our environment and schedules that society demands without so much of a physical challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do we have daylight saving time?<\/p>\n

Daylight saving time was introduced in 1918 to conserve energy during World War I and later returned for World War II. Congress made the twice-yearly time change the national standard in 1966.<\/p>\n

America tried permanent daylight saving time in 1974, sparking backlash after children were struck by cars while walking to school in dark winter mornings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Congress reverted later that year, with a House panel saying that energy saving \u201cmust be balanced against a majority of the public\u2019s distaste for the observance of Daylight Saving Time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traffic accidents linked to daylight saving doubled<\/a> after the Energy Policy Act of 2005 extended the time change by several weeks.<\/p>\n

Our most recent attempt to tamper with time was a version of the Sunshine Protection Act<\/a>, introduced by Florida Republican Vern Buchanan in 2025. It proposed making daylight saving permanent, but was shot down in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.<\/p>\n

Can we change the system?<\/p>\n

States have the power to switch to permanent standard time; Hawaii, most of Arizona, and territories like Puerto Rico all do this.<\/p>\n

California took the first step to removing daylight saving with Proposition 7<\/a>, giving lawmakers the power to change the system. The state Senate considered a bill<\/a> to adopt permanent standard time, but it failed upon first committee review in May 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn\u2019t! Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation,\u201d said President Donald Trump in a Truth Social post<\/a> in late 2024.<\/p>\n

His position softened by May, describing it as a 50-50 issue. He will not be pursuing a nationwide change to permanent standard time, saying<\/a> \u201ca lot of people like it one way, a lot of people like it the other way. It\u2019s very even. I find, when that\u2019s the case, what else do we have to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t know which way it\u2019s supposed to go, they just want this switching to end. In reality, that\u2019s probably the lesser problem,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

The time change is part of a larger health challenge<\/p>\n

\u201cAll this artificial light is completely changing our behaviors, pushing us back,\u201d said Manoogian. \u201cA lot of us could be earlier if we didn\u2019t have all this stimulus coming in. A lot of it is not the light itself, but our schedules. <\/p>\n

\u201cYour free time is at night. You need to let yourself relax, but we\u2019re overextending our days. We overdo it, don\u2019t get enough sleep, and it leads to these problems,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What can we do to stay healthy?<\/p>\n

Everyday, we train ourselves to the 24-hour clock, light cues and our environment. The more consistent we can be, the better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Research recommends eating one hour after waking up and not eating within three hours of falling asleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe window depends on when you wake up. This allows your glucose to be processed. Once you\u2019re asleep and it\u2019s dark, you don\u2019t process it in the same way,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

If your schedule demands waking up before the sun, it\u2019s recommended to give yourself as much light as possible to cue your brain.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re the least sensitive to it in the morning, when you expect it, so you need really, really bright light. You\u2019re most sensitive to it at night when you\u2019re expecting it to dim down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Because of that nighttime sensitivity, it\u2019s best to avoid bright screens before falling asleep.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if you\u2019re watching TV, dimming your other lights can still help a lot,\u201d said Manoogian.<\/p>\n

But even circadian researchers struggle with their own advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to go to bed as soon as I can, but I also have two kids. By the time I get them to bed, there\u2019s other work to get done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For many people, modern life makes perfect sleep schedules impossible. Even small changes \u2014 consistent sleep, morning light and limiting artificial light at night \u2014 can help the body maintain a healthy rhythm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daylight saving time will see the clock spring forward by one hour on March 8, 2026. (Photo by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[15878,96362,24223,19708,74,76,75],"class_list":["post-209173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-car-accidents","tag-circadian-rhythms","tag-clocks","tag-daylight-saving-time","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}