Imagine if we didn’t change our clocks

If we got rid of this time switch, what would our life be like?

This weekend marks the return of daylight saving time, that annual springtime ritual when we turn our clocks ahead an hour — upending sleep schedules in the process — all for the sake of shifting an hour of daylight later into the evening.

Daylight saving time officially begins at 2 a.m. Sunday and ends Nov. 7 this year, when we return to standard time.

While many people enjoy having more daylight in the evening, some argue that the disruption that results from having to change the clocks twice a year is linked to higher heart attack risk and even more car crash fatalities. That disruption has led to increased momentum for making daylight saving time permanent.

So far, more than a dozen states have passed year-round daylight saving time legislation, including Ohio, Delaware and Florida. Pennsylvania lawmakers are working on a proposal, too.

But for such a change to actually happen, Congress would need to act at the federal level. Just this week a bipartisan bill, known as the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, was introduced in the Senate that would make daylight saving time permanent.

So what are the benefits and drawbacks of year-round daylight saving time? What if daylight saving time were simply abolished and we had year-round standard time? Here is the impact both scenarios could have.

Year-round daylight saving time

Energy savings?

One of the most cited benefits of daylight saving time is energy savings, under the assumption people don’t need to light and heat their homes as much in the evening hours if there is daylight. National daylight saving time was first adopted in the United States during World War I to save costly coal energy, according to National Geographic.

From January 1974 to October 1975, daylight saving was observed year-round amid the energy crisis. The duration of daylight saving time was most recently extended in 2007 as part of an energy policy bill.

However, many experts now agree the claims of energy savings are dubious. A 2008 National Bureau of Economic Research study found that residential energy consumption actually increased in Indiana after the state began observing daylight saving time in 2006.

Less crime

If daylight saving time isn’t saving energy, can it cut down on crime? A 2015 study found that robberies dropped by 7% at the start of daylight saving time in the spring. Presumably, extending daylight saving time year-round could further cut down on crime.

More shopping

Michael Downing, author of “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time,” says in his book that daylight saving is actually “a fantastically effective retail-spending plan.” He notes that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports daylight saving on behalf of small businesses and retailers who can take advantage of people stopping to shop on their way home from work, which they tend to do in the summer as the days get longer.

More time outdoors — and golfing

The barbecue industry also loves daylight saving, Downing argues, and so do the owners of home good stores as people create livable spaces on their decks and patios for the summer. The biggest benefactor of all is the golf industry, Downing says, generating billions of dollars a year in economic impact as golfers hit the tees at first light and don’t quit until dark.

Dark winter mornings

The most notable downside of yearround daylight saving time would come in the winter, when many areas would not see the sun rise until long after most people are out of bed and off to work or school.

For example, the sunrise in eastern Pennsylvania would be after 8 a.m. from late November until the middle of February. In the Lehigh Valley, the latest sunrise of the year would be around 8:25 a.m. following the winter solstice at the end of December. Areas on the western fringes of a time zone, such as Michigan in the Eastern Time Zone, would see even later sunrises.

Concerns raised about students having to go to school in the dark in the middle of winter led to a drop in public support for year-round daylight following the 1970s experiment.

Year-round standard time

Better on the body?

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports eliminating seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time. But instead of favoring permanent daylight saving time, it says current evidence “best supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.”

Easier on farmers

Despite a common myth that daylight saving time was created to benefit agriculture, most farmers have never really been fans, particularly due to the disruption in schedules created by changing the clocks. The agriculture industry heavily lobbied against that first instance of national daylight saving time during World War I.

“The farmers were the reason we never had a peacetime daylight saving time until 1966,” Downing told National Geographic in 2013. “They had a powerful lobby and were against it vociferously.”

Part of the reason was the hour less of sunlight in the morning left them less time to get crops to market. Scrapping daylight saving time would also make the later sunrises during the fall harvest a thing of the past.

Super early summer sunrises

If we were on standard time the entire year, we would obviously notice it most during the summer (when we currently observe daylight saving time). In eastern Pennsylvania, the sun would rise before 5 a.m. from May through July. In the Lehigh Valley, the earliest sunrise of the year would be at 4:30 a.m. from June 9 through June 19, just prior to the summer solstice.

Areas on the eastern fringes of a time zone, such as New England in the Eastern Time Zone, would see many summer sunrises closer to 4 a.m. Unless you’re from Alaska or other locations close to the earth’s poles, even the most avid morning person might have a hard time adjusting to sunrises that early.

Dark summer nights

As if a 4 a.m. sunrise to wake you from your slumber weren’t bad enough, the latest the summer sun would set in eastern Pennsylvania would be around 7:30 p.m. While that would allow for earlier Fourth of July fireworks, it would put a damper on any outdoor recreation in the evening.

Many staples of summer nights from baseball games to outdoor festivals would be held almost entirely after the sun goes down.

Going to work in the dark at 8 a.m. in the dead of winter? Waking up with the sun at 4 a.m. in the middle of summer? When it comes to alternatives to our current “hybrid” model of time, pick your poison.

Maybe changing the clocks twice a year isn’t so bad after all.