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Position Statements

Numerous nonprofits, scientific societies, and newspaper editorial boards have published statements opposing per­ma­nent Day­light Sav­ing Time (fast time) and supporting per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time (natural time).

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

The United States should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time, which aligns best with human circadian biology… Ev­i­dence supports the distinct benefits of Stand­ard Time for health and safety, while also underscoring the potential harms that result from seasonal time changes to and from Day­light Sav­ing Time. By causing the human bod­y clock to be misaligned with the natural environment, Day­light Sav­ing Time increases risks to our physical health, mental well-being, and public safety… Per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time is the optimal choice for health and safety… Read More: aasm.org

American Medical Association

Committing to Stand­ard Time has health benefits and allows us to end the biannual tug of war between our biological and a­larm clocks… E­lim­i­nat­ing time changes in March and No­vem­ber would be welcome. But re­search shows per­ma­nent Day­light Sav­ing Time overlooks potential health risks that can be avoided by establishing per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time in­stead…” Read More: ama-aasn.org

Bloomberg

Stand­ard Time is better aligned with the position of the sun and human nature. It generally synchronizes waking with sunrise and bedtime with darkness, in accordance with circadian rhythms. It enables children and adults to go to school and work in daylight. Day­light Sav­ing Time effectively does the reverse. By increasing exposure to morning darkness and evening light, DST shifts bod­y clocks later in the day and makes it difficult to fully wake up or easily fall asleep, a particular hazard for children. Having to be at school or work unnaturally ear­ly leads to “social jet lag”, which is associated with a higher risk of obesity, heart disease, and depression. As for conserving energy, the original rationale? Stud­ies suggest DST may in fact do the opposite… Read More: bloom­berg­.com

British Sleep Society

There is an ongoing debate in the United Kingdom and in other countries about whether twice-yearly changes into and out of Daylight Saving Time should be abolished. Opinions are divided about whether any abolition of Daylight Saving Time should result in permanent Standard Time, or year-long Daylight Saving Time. The British Sleep Society concludes from the available scientific evidence that circadian and sleep health are affected negatively by enforced changes of clock time (especially in a forward direction) and positively by the availability of natural daylight during the morning. Thus, our recommendation is that the United Kingdom should abolish the twice-yearly clock change and reinstate Standard Time throughout the year… Read More: wiley.com

Canadian Sleep Research Consortium

Follow the Sun! Natural time, defined by the sun, is the best option for health, mood, safety, education, and productivity. Why abolish Daylight Saving Time and maintain Standard Time? The issue of time change is complex, but the evidence is clear: It is in the best interests of public health to abolish time change and maintain Standard Time permanently. Here are a few key points to help you understand what’s at stake… Read More: researchsleep.ca

Canadian Sleep Society

Optimal sleep and optimal a­lign­ment of the human circadian clock with daytime activities is achieved with Stand­ard Time. Not only does Day­light Sav­ing Time induce sleep deprivation at its inception in the spring, but it enforces later darkness during the summer, favoring delayed bedtime, social jet lag, and more sleep loss… The Can­a­di­an Sleep Society recommends termination of DST in favor of per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time… Read More: css-scs.ca

Canadian Society for Chronobiology

We advocate for year-round Stand­ard Time rather than Day­light Sav­ing Time. Stand­ard Time puts the social clock closer to our intrinsic bod­y clock, our circadian rhythm, which is set by the dawn. DST moves dawn later, and creates social jet lag due to mismatch between our biological drive to wake up near dawn and the social demands for us to stay up later. Year-round DST is predicted to increase rates of chron­ic diseases, decrease economic performance, and increase inequities in society… Pre­vi­ous experiments with year-round DST have proven to be unpopular. Year-round Stand­ard Time should be adopted as a public health measure… Read More: chrono­bio­can­ada­.com

Curits Clock Lab, Royal College of Surgeons, Ireland

Standard Time, while not perfect, is the closest approximation we have to the sun clock; it’s also the only practicable solution for a globalised, connected society. With standard time, the start of the working day more or less aligns with sunrise and ends with sunset. Unfortunately, the entirely arbitrary biannual ritual of daylight savings time means we only stay in this synchrony with the sun for five months of the year… Read More: irishtimes.com

The Daytona Beach News–Journal

Economic arguments have been used to support Day­light Sav­ing Time. However, some of their claims have been undermined by further re­search, and others turn out to be poorly documented. Pit those against the solid bod­y of ev­i­dence supporting Stand­ard Time—which re­search­ers have established promotes more and better-quality sleep—as the health­ier option for most A­mer­i­cans, and it should be clear: Health wins. Live A­mer­i­cans spend more money than dead ones. In­stead of trying to spring forward to year-round Day­light Sav­ing time, fall back to good-old Stand­ard Time… Read More: news-journal­on­line­.com

European Sleep Research Society

Chronobiology studies the influence of day–night rhythms and seasonal changes in living organisms (and received the Nobel Prize 2017 for these discoveries). As experts in biological clocks and sleep, we have been following the initiative of the European Commission to abandon the annual clock-time changes in spring and autumn in the EU. We would like to emphasize that the scientific evidence presently available indicates that installing permanent Central European Time (CET, Standard Time or ‘wintertime’) is the best option for public health… Read More: esrs.eu

Minneapolis Star Tribune

Ending twice-a-year clock change merits serious consideration. But state and federal bills go beyond that to make Day­light Sav­ing Time per­ma­nent. That would be a mistake. If there is a shift, it should be to Stand­ard Time… As Con­gress weighs DST, health experts are speaking out. If there is a per­ma­nent change, Stand­ard Time is the clear choice. It provides more early daylight and most closely aligns with the bod­y’s natural wake–work–sleep rhythms. Mis­a­lign­ment has been linked to “increased cardiovascular disease risk, metabolic syndrome, and other health risks”, according to the A­mer­i­can A­cad­e­my of Sleep Medicine… Read More: star­trib­une­.com

National Sleep Foundation

The human circadian system does not adjust to annual clock chang­es. Sleep becomes disrupted, less efficient, and shortened. Day­light Sav­ing Time forces biological clocks out of sync with the rising and setting of the sun. The link between our biological clock and the sun has been crucial to human health and well-being for millennia… Seasonal time chang­es are disruptive to sleep health and should be e­lim­i­nat­ed. Ev­i­dence supports per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time because of its a­lign­ment with our circadian biology and relevance to sleep health and safety. NSF advocates for the adoption of per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time as the appropriate option for public health… Read More: the­nsf­.org

The Oregonian

For Or­e­go­ni­ans, keeping our clocks set to Day­light Sav­ing Time year-round would mean sunrise would not occur before 8am for 106 days each year… Or­e­go­ni­ans should focus on contacting [Con­gress] and legislators in Sa­lem. Urge them to stop such an irrational change at the federal level and, failing that, make sure Oregon seeks an exemption to remain in Stand­ard Time. The marginal benefit of an extra hour of light during a limited number of summer evenings is not worth the trade-off of spending nearly a third of the year’s mornings in darkness… Read More: oregon­live­.com

Orlando Sentinel

Some people objected to tampering with “God’s time”. But a religious perspective isn’t necessary to see that Daylight Saving Time is out of step with the natural rhythm of life. For ages, civilization divided the day at the time the sun was highest, and called it “high noon”. Standard Time is natural time. Eons earlier, the biological clocks of humans and other living things had set themselves to the same quotidian rhythm, beyond the power of any congress or legislature to change. Farmers can’t instruct the roosters when to crow, or tell cows when they need to be milked. There’s no persuading a teenager that it’s time to rise and shine when the sun hasn’t… Read More: orlando­sentinel­.com

Sleep Research Society

Day­light Sav­ing Time causes a­cute sleep loss and chronic circadian mis­a­lign­ment as the timing of natural light becomes desynchronized from normal physiological processes, resulting in dysregulation of melatonin and cortisol. Disruption of these hormones con­tri­butes to stress, altered metabolism, and inflammation. This would occur year-round if Day­light Sav­ing Time were per­ma­nent. The bulk of ev­i­dence supports abolishing Day­light Sav­ing Time and adopting per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time… Read More: sleep­re­search­so­ci­e­ty­.org

Society for Research on Biological Rhythms

Based on comparisons of large populations living in Day­light Sav­ing Time or Stand­ard Time, or on western versus eastern edges of time zones, the advantages of per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time outweigh switching to DST annually or permanently… If we want to improve human health, we should not fight against our bod­y clock, and therefore we should abandon DST and return to Stand­ard Time (which is when the sun clock time most closely matches the social clock time) throughout the year. This solution would fix both the acute and the chronic problems of DST. We therefore strongly support removing DST chang­es or removing per­ma­nent DST and having governing organizations choose per­ma­nent Stand­ard Time for the health and safety of their citizens… Read More: srbr.org

South Florida Sun Sentinel

Florida’s senior senator sneaked through the chamber a bill to make Day­light Sav­ing Time per­ma­nent. No one objected because almost no one knew what was happening. Senators seeking approval of a bill in that fashion are supposed to notify their colleagues. Many senators, though, said they received no such notification. Rubio used that stealth to pass the wrong bill. We agree Con­gress should end the twice-a-year annoyance of changing clocks. The loss of an hour from the shift to Day­light Sav­ing Time is especially hard. The better change, though, would be to make Stand­ard Time—what farm­ers once called “God’s Time”—permanent. As experts pointed out, it’s the natural way to go… Read More: sun-sentinel.com

Time Use Initiative

The proven benefits of clocks being aligned with solar time and the negative impact of misaligned clocks on health, the economy, education, safety, and the environment urge for the implementation of permanent time zones as close as possible to solar time (natural time) in Europe. The Barcelona Declaration on Time Policies working group to end clock changes has agreed on a plan to end clock changes and implement permanent time zones in the EU. The key elements of the proposal are presented below. Considering the benefits of geographically correct time zones and the negative consequences of misaligned clocks… Read More: timeuse.barcelona