Every March and November the clock changes. In Spring it goes forward one hour, and in the Fall it goes back an hour. Daylight savings time was started over 100 years ago in the United States. It was first implemented in WW1 to save “fuel and power” (usafacts.org). This was called the Standard Time Act of 1918. We know it today as the Uniform Time Act, which makes America have a time change twice a year.
Due to this past time change on March 9, 2025, there was a notice of tiredness and fatigue. Sofia Marin (11), a student at YLHS states her experience to be a dreadful one: “I couldn’t do anything on Sunday, even though I only lost one hour of sleep.”
Many left school on Monday as well, still feeling the hour loss. Rupal Tyagi (11), another student at YLHS left school with a throbbing headache she had never felt in her life, “I genuinely felt nothing like that before, I think it’s because of the hour loss on Sunday.” Just losing one hour of sleep can impact your day and even your week. It is good to have a consistent sleep schedule, especially for students, and Daylight Savings does not help with that.
Along with impacting students, Daylight Savings also increases the car crash rates during the “spring forward” transition. This could be caused by the reduced visibility caused by sleep deprivation. Morgan and Morgan, an injury firm law, states that the spring transition “increases stress levels and affects heart health.” Not only in car accidents but in the workplace and schools, there is an increased rate of silly errors, laziness, and loss of productivity (forthepeople.com).
Daylight Savings is here to stay, impacting our lives more negatively than positively. Nowadays, the US has advanced technologies that can help our farmers or other people who rely on Daylight Savings. But as a whole, we do not need Daylight savings anymore.
Arizona and Hawaii, have already taken this step, and since 1967 they have opted out of partaking in Daylight Savings. The closest act to change to a permanent time was in 2022, the “Sunshine Protection Act of 2021” (desertsun.com). It was passed by the US Senate but not by the House of Representatives. All in all, it is time for the U.S. to get rid of this antique way of saving daylight and look to new industries and ideas. New technologies, for example, can replace Daylight Savings.
