There’s even an uptick during the week when clocks “fall back.” Heart attacks increase 24% in the week after the U.S. It wreaks havoc with people’s sleep cycles. Avoiding clock switches improves sleepĬritics of DST are correct about one thing: The biannual clock switch is bad for health and welfare. would have seen an energy savings of more than US$4 billion and a decrease of carbon emissions by 10.8 million metric tons if we had enacted permanent DST more than decade ago. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy estimated that the U.S. This rationale motivated some in California to recommend permanent DST in the early 2000s, when the state experienced recurrent electricity shortages and rolling brownouts.

But a considerable portion of the population is still asleep at sunrise, resulting in significantly less demand for energy then. Most people in our society are awake and using energy in the early evening when the sun sets. in 1973, which helped combat the effect of OPEC’s oil embargo. DST resulted in 150,000 barrels of oil saved by the U.S. Having more sun in the evening requires not just less electricity to provide lighting, but reduces the amount of oil and gas required to heat homes and businesses, though it could increase cooling costs in the summer. When the sun is out later in the evening, peak energy loads are reduced. troops, and then later during the 1973 OPEC oil crisis. Many people don’t know that the original justification for the creation of DST was to save energy – initially during World War I and II to prioritize energy for U.S. Crime rates are 30% lower in the morning hours, even when those morning hours occur before sunrise, when it’s still dark.Ī 2013 British study found that improved lighting in the evening hours could reduce the crime rate by up to 20%. This is especially true for crimes by juveniles, which peak in the after-school and early evening hours.Ĭriminals prefer to do their work in the darkness of evening and night. Moving sunlight into the evening has a far greater impact on crime prevention than it does in the morning. Mornings would be riskier, but afternoons/evenings would be far more safe.ĭarkness is also a friend of crime.

Standard time has the opposite impact, by moving sunlight to the morning.Ī metastudy reviewing all of the available research on the topic demonstrated that 343 lives per year could be saved by moving to year-round DST, primarily in reduced vehicle on pedestrian accidents. Fatal vehicle-on-pedestrian crashes increase threefold when the sun goes down.ĭST brings an extra hour of sunlight into the evening to mitigate those risks. Far more people are on the road, more alcohol is in drivers’ bloodstreams, people are hurrying to get home and more children are enjoying outdoor, unsupervised play. The evening rush hour is twice as fatal as the morning for various reasons.

Simply put, darkness kills – and darkness in the evening is far deadlier than darkness in the morning. If Congress ultimately passes the measure to turn all clocks forward permanently, I see five ways that Americans’ lives will improve.

Nearly 20 states have passed bills to make DST permanent, and the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act to allow those laws to take effect – since any one state can’t move to DST unilaterally on dates different from the rest of the country. But research shows that DST saves lives and prevents crime.

When clocks change