Standard time returns, so does a perennial issue

BOSTON — The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) estimates about a third of Americans run on too little sleep. In federal studies, 40% report falling asleep during the day one or more times per month. Even more frightening: 5% said they’ve fallen asleep while driving.

The shift back to Standard Time (EST) this weekend enabled an extra hour of sleep. While a welcome short-term development, nearly two dozen sleep medicine organizations recommend ditching the time change -- because it messes with the body’s natural Circadian rhythms. They’re especially concerned with the shift in March when Daylight Saving Time returns -- and most Americans lose an hour of sleep.

A 2020 study found both time changes increased the likelihood of healthcare workers making mistakes that resulted in adverse patient events -- but that was far more likely to happen in spring than in fall.

The AASM, which would like to see Standard Time made permanent, notes studies that have found as much as a 6% increase in fatal traffic accidents in the days following ‘spring forward.’ Other studies find the change to DST appears to increase the risk for heart attack and stroke.

According to the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, national Daylight Saving Time came to be in 1918 and grew out of an effort to standardize time -- such that sunrise and sunset, which differ for every community, would no longer govern the clock. The time change catered to the needs of industry and railroads, which increasingly needed the ability to set schedules.

But only a year later, the time change became non-mandatory -- meaning cities and states could observe the time change, or not -- and, if they did, could set individual dates for the switch.

That haphazard system persisted, save for wartime interruptions, for nearly 50 years. But in1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which established national start and end dates for Standard and Daylight Saving Times. Initially, lawmakers set the dates for DST from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In 2007, under President George W. Bush, DST expanded from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.

What the Uniform Time Act failed to do, however, is make the time switch mandatory for all parts of the United States. Thus, today, a few states and jurisdictions still do not fall back or spring forward.

Three times in U.S. history, Daylight Saving Time went year-round. First, for a brief period in World War One. Then, in 1942, as the U.S. entered World War Two. That year-round DST lasted until 1945. In both instances, the change was made to save energy and increase wartime productivity.

The last effort to extend Daylight Saving Time to year-round came during the 1970s energy crisis. The American Presidency Project reports The Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon early in 1974. It kicked off a two-year trial period of year-round DST. At the time, Nixon estimated it would save 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

But eight months later, the experiment ended. One reason for the repeal was the specter of children heading off to school in the dark.

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