Bipartisanship lives… Hold your clocks: This week, senators made a unanimous vote: to make daylight-saving time permanent (starting next year). Now the bill heads to the House, where its fate is uncertain. President Biden hasn’t weighed in over whether he’ll sign it.
- Oven clock, still wrong: Nearly half of US states already passed laws to make DST (the “spring forward” period we’re in now) permanent if Congress allows it. (FYI: Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that don’t observe DST.)
- Ripples: The outcome has implications on everything from productivity and mental health to retail revenue.
Walking on sunshine… In the 1900s, a British architect first floated the idea of shifting clocks so that summer days could be longer. But it wasn't until WWI that it caught on: Germany was the first to adopt DST, touting its "energy-saving" benefits. The UK, France, and the US followed. But messing with the clocks has consequences:
- Closing time: For retailers, when the clocks turn back so do profits. Some studies have found that shoppers spend nearly 4% less in the month following DST.
- In the spring: By one account, losing an hour of sleep adds up to nearly half a billion dollars in lost productivity.
- In the fall: Studies also found that SAT scores dropped 2% when taken after the time change — and the extra hour of darkness can increase depression by more than 10%.
Lighter later has pros and cons… 70% of Americans say they hate changing the clock. But we’ve been here before: during the energy crisis of 1973, the US made DST permanent, hoping it would save energy (later sunset = less need for electricity). But after pre-sunrise car accidents increased and energy savings weren’t huge, Congress nixed it nine months later. Fifty years on, it’s popular to want a single time system — but there’s disagreement over which one.