Start Times for School & Work

Experts in the research of circadian health warn permanent Daylight Saving Time “undermines”1 and “negates”2 the necessary and popular benefits of starting school later, and that lawmakers who support both Start School Later and permanent DST are “confused”.23

Proponents of permanent DST claim civil clocks are arbitrary. Meanwhile, data and history show “every cell”45 in our bodies is “entrained”6789 to solar time, and that we “never adjust”71011121314 to DST, even when DST is made permanent. Standard Time by design aligns civil clocks to solar time “most closely”,111516 most practically, and for maximal benefit to individuals and society.

Start School Later and Save Standard Time share the goal of assuring adequate sleep for optimal health and scholastic potential. DST’s artificially delayed sunsets and sunrises disrupt human hormones, they make sleep during unnaturally bright evenings harder, they make waking during unnaturally dark mornings harder, and they reduce exposure to morning light (which is when physical and mental health needs sunlight most).45171819202122

By solidifying civil clocks’ connection to solar time, permanent Standard Time provides an essential foundation to protect Start School Later policy.23 Additionally, permanent Standard Time extends the benefits of Start School Later to adults, who also need adequate sleep for health, safety, and success.172425

The average American school day begins at 8:03am, and the median American workday begins at 7:55am—though many begin 30 or even 60 minutes earlier.2627 Postponing start times helps, but simultaneously advancing clocks “contravenes”23 or “cancels out”3 such help. The result can be an arms race against start times, wherein we push clocks forward for more daylight after school and work, then we push start times later for more daylight before school and work. We gain no daylight, we lose more sleep, we obscure the objective meaning of time’s hours, and we muddle decades of scientific records.828 Permanent DST also opens the way for double DST, when we advance clocks two hours293031 and double the harms to public health.28323334

When Russia tried permanent DST from 2011 to 2014, mental and physical health continually suffered over three years.35 Spain observes an advanced time zone, and their population loses nearly an hour of sleep each night.36 When the US last tried permanent DST in 1974, eight children’s lives were needlessly taken by groggy motorists on unnaturally dark winter morning roads.373839 Lack of roadway visibility is a factor in DST-related fatalities, but sleep deprivation is the stronger cause.4041

Permanent DST would artificially delay sunrise as late as 8:37am in Florida, 8:44am in California, 8:48am in New York, 9:04am in Texas, and 9:48am in the contiguous US.42 Sunrise rarely occurs after 8am in most North American cities, but permanent DST would artificially delay sunrise past 8am as many as 106 days (3.5 months) in California, 109 days (3.6 months) in New York, 118 days (3.9 months) in Florida, 152 days (5.0 months) in Texas, and 169 days (5.6 months) in the contiguous US.42 See how your community fares under Standard Time versus DST with Save Standard Time’s Sunrise Chart.

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