The retail and leisure industries argue that more light in the evenings will give consumers more time to spend money, and proponents also argue that brighter evenings mean fewer robberies and safer roads.
More than a dozen states have adopted daylight saving time laws. But it will take an act of Congress to end the federal mandate for daylight saving time, which was introduced in 1918 by the Standard Time Act, a law that establishes federal oversight of time zones and has been adjusted repeatedly over the past 100 years.
Sleep experts, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, loathe the idea of daylight saving time instead of standard time. Although no study has conclusively proven that standard time is best for human health, they argue that permanent daylight saving time can have long-term and dangerous effects on public health.
“We are disappointed, especially given the overwhelming scientific and medical opinion that this is a bad idea,” says Dr. Karin Johnson, Save Standard Time board member and associate professor of neurology at the Chan School of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts. Baystate said Tuesday.
Sleep scientists note that the standard time – winter time – is more closely related to the movement of the sun. They say that bright mornings help people wake up and stay awake, while dark nights promote the production of melatonin, a hormone that triggers sleep. When it’s too light at night, it can be difficult to sleep. When it’s too dark in the morning, it can be difficult to wake up.
Together, this can lead to chronic sleep deprivation, which has been linked to a range of health conditions such as obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Light signals from the sun also regulate metabolism, insulin production, blood pressure and hormones.
“Daylight saving time is the worst choice in terms of medical and health implications,” said Joseph Takahashi, chair of neuroscience at the O’Donnell Brain Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. “This leaves us forever out of sync with the environment.”