Do we keep daylight saving time or let it go?

After a vote on Monday, the Shelby County Commission will ask the Tennessee legislature to “continue studying daylight saving legislation and seek ways to minimize disruption for Tennessee families.”

The original resolution would have asked the legislature to exempt the state entirely from daylight saving time, but that was substituted for what commissioners called a “softer” resolution.

Commissioner Mick Wright, who sponsored the resolution, said he saw a post from a friend on Facebook about the harm of switching one’s clock back and forth. He then did some research on the health consequences of changing one’s schedule due to the changing time.

“I’m hearing from a lot of people that it actually has real world consequences to people’s schedules, especially young families,” Wright said.

He opted for the “softer” wording in the end to garner more support for the resolution, Wright said.

Why not daylight saving?

Disrupted sleep patterns from switching back and forth can cause fatigue and an increase in stress. Some studies have noted a spike in heart attacks during the first week of daylight saving time, according to Business Insider, although falling back in the fall may cause a decrease in heart attacks.

Fatigue resulting from losing an hour can also result in an increase in traffic accidents.

Another option, to keep daylight saving time year-round, could decrease deaths from traffic accidents since it’s more likely to be light out, according to some studies.

However, keeping daylight saving time would require a change to federal law, whereas opting out can be done by individual states.

Wright said he’d be fine with either option: It’s primarily the switching back and forth that concerns him.

Tennessee legislators have previously considered making changes to how the state handles daylight saving time, but those efforts have never seen fruition.

Arizona, Hawaii and a handful of U.S. territories have also opted out of daylight saving time, largely because they have plenty of daylight.

Other items the Shelby County Commission voted to put on its legislative agenda include:

❚ Asking the state to offer more funding for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate officer-involved shootings (voted on in a previous meeting)

❚ Asking that the state amend its Basic Education Program to fund additional school resource officers, social workers and counselors.

❚ Asking for state funding for rehabilitation programs for senior citizens in impoverished inner city areas.

❚ Asking the state to avoid making unfunded mandates of school systems.