Sunrise over Boston. (Photo via Creative Commons by slack 12) field_54b3f951675b3

ON NOVEMBER  5, residents of Massachusetts and most other states will return to a behavior that offers them better health outcomes, better sleep, better school performance, and increased workplace safety and productivity. Sounds like a great idea, right? Yet, unfortunately, those benefits will only last four months despite the majority of Americans from both sides of the aisle wanting to end clock change. This fall, as we shift our clocks back to Standard Time, we wisely embrace the more natural, sun-aligned clock time that has medical and scientific support. The challenge is to make that state of affairs permanent, just as a bill currently before Massachusetts legislators would do.

The bill, submitted by Rep. Angelo Puppolo and Sen. Patrick O’Connor, would allow Massachusetts to adopt permanent Standard Time. Permanent Standard Time is already federally approved by the 1966 Uniform Time act so if a state bill passes, Standard Time can be adopted immediately. This is how Arizona, Hawaii, and all five US territories use permanent Standard Time. In contrast, permanent Daylight Saving Time is federally prohibited. Wary of economic and transportation impacts due to misalignment with border states, many time bills, including the Massachusetts bill, link implementation to similar bills in other states.  

While linking bills may delay the benefits of ending clock change until a federal bill is passed, successful passage is still critically important. This is because 17 states, starting with Florida in 2019, have passed laws that say they will adopt permanent Daylight Saving Time if federally approved, while no recent states have passed permanent Standard Time bills. It is very unlikely that the federal government will pass a bill for Permanent Standard Time without a similar demonstration of state-level support.  

Why have so many states passed permanent Daylight Saving Time bills? For too long there has been a push in the wrong direction. Many politicians have been for arguing for permanent Daylight Saving Time. They promise better health and mood, based on ending the harms of clock change, but do not account for the long-term harms of living on an artificial time that is more misaligned with the sun. Instead, science and history tell us that more natural, permanent Standard Time is the way to go. Most polls have showed a preference ending clock change with permanent Daylight Saving Time, but a March 2023 You.gov poll shows that, despite that stated preference, values of better health and safety align better with permanent Standard Time.

US Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ed Markey of Massachusetts have been submitting the federal Sunshine Protection Act for permanent Daylight Saving Time since 2018. Its activity peaked in March 2022 when it passed the Senate in a surprise floor vote. With warnings from scientists and physicians, the Sunshine Protection Act failed to past the House and there were fewer cosponsors for the 2023 bill. There are also an increasing number of state bills for permanent Standard Time (26 submitted in 2023 including Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and Maine.

Momentum is changing with no bills for permanent Daylight Saving Time being passed in 2023 and many states who have already passed Daylight Saving Time bills now have bills for permanent Standard Time. Sen. John Keenan of Quincy has introduced a bill for permanent Atlantic Time, aka Permanent Eastern Daylight Time for several years but has fewer supporters with each year. (The bill would change Massachusetts’ time zone to get around the federal prohibition of permanent Daylight Saving time.)

Every year more scientific data is uncovering the hidden harms of Daylight Saving Time. Most people think it is just the clock change that is harmful (it is), but they do not realize the greater harms of living with delayed clocks throughout Daylight Saving Time, which increase the risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, depression, suicide, fatal motor vehicle crashes, and decreased workplace productivity and academic achievement. These impacts are disproportionately felt by teenagers, night owls, and workers and parents who have to wake up by 8 a.m. (worse for those with earlier start times), more often minorities and those with lower socio-economic status.

The long-term harms of Daylight Saving Time are much worse in the winter when we would lose morning sunlight until after 8 a.m. for almost two months in Massachusetts. Morning light is what sets our daily rhythms, which is essential for health and mood. Too little morning light and/or too much light at night makes it hard to get our children (and ourselves) to bed on time.

Some people remember the unpopular, dark winter during permanent Daylight Saving Time in 1974. This is why over 40 medical and scientific organizations, including the Massachusetts Medical Society and American Medical Association, have endorsed permanent Standard Time as the way to end clock change.

The Coalition for Permanent Standard Time, a collaboration between sleep medicine and science associations, the National Sleep Foundation and Save Standard Time, is actively providing state and national testimony at committee hearings, advocating in Congress for a sponsor for a Permanent Standard Time bill, and educating the public. I will be testifying and I hope others will take the time to call their legislators and submit testimony telling their stories about how clock changes impact their lives and the need to end the change with permanent Standard Time.  

Massachusetts has often taken the lead on laws promoting public health and structural disparity issues.  We have the opportunity to be the first state to signal that politicians are serious about ending clock change with natural permanent Standard Time.

Karin Johnson is a professor of neurology at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School-Baystate and medical director of the Baystate Health Regional Sleep Program. She is co-chair of the Coalition for Permanent Standard Time. She is vice-president of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Save Standard Time and creator and host of its educational video series The Science of Clock Change.