However, I think it’s important to note that these same sleep benefits are available under year-round DST, too. If that’s not bad enough, a study from 2000 shows that the major financial market indexes NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ average negative returns on the Monday trading day following both clock switches, presumably because of disrupted sleep cycles.Ĭritics of biannual clock switching sometimes use these points to argue in favor of permanent standard time. There’s even an uptick during the week in November when the clocks “fall back.” Heart attacks increase 24 percent 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. in 1973, which helped combat the effect of OPEC’s oil embargo. Similarly, DST resulted in 150,000 barrels of oil saved by the U.S. Officials at the California Energy Commission estimated that 3.4 percent of California’s winter energy usage could be saved by moving to year-round DST. This rationale motivated some in California to recommend permanent DST a decade ago, when the state experienced recurrent electricity shortages and rolling brown-outs. Under standard time, the sun rises earlier, reducing morning energy consumption, but only half of Americans are awake to be able to use the sun. 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 when people need that energy most. But a considerable portion of the population is still asleep at sunrise, resulting in significantly less demand for energy then. Virtually everyone in our society is awake and using energy in the early evening hours when the sun sets. When the sun is out later in the evening, peak energy loads are reduced. 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 and then later during the 1973 OPEC oil crisis. Crime rates are lower by 30 percent in the morning to afternoon 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 percent. This is especially true for crimes by juveniles, which peak in the after-school and early evening hours.Ĭriminals strongly prefer to do their work in the darkness of evening and night. Moving sunlight into the evening hours has a far greater impact on the prevention of crime than it does in the morning. imposed year-round standard time.ĭarkness is also a friend of crime. The opposite effect would occur if the U.S. Standard time has precisely the opposite impact, by moving sunlight into the morning.Ī meta-study by Rutgers researchers demonstrated that 343 lives per year could be saved by moving to year-round DST. 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. The evening rush hour is twice as fatal as the morning for various reasons: 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. on Sunday, March 8, 2021.Simply put, darkness kills – and darkness in the evening is far deadlier than darkness in the morning. It's also recommended at this time of year that homeowners check their smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and change the batteries accordingly.Įnjoy the extra hour of sleep, but don't forget to mark your calendars - clocks are scheduled to spring forward one hour at 2 a.m. A date for the third reading of the bill has not yet been released. The bill has already passed a second reading in the legislature. MPP for Ottawa West - Nepean, Jeremy Roberts, has tabled Bill 214, the Time Amendment Act, which would end the bi-annual practice of changing clocks across the province. The Ontario government has stated it is in support of a private members' bill that would put an end to the practice. The bad news? The start of darker winter afternoons.ĭaylight Savings Time may soon be a thing of the past.
The good news? Extra weekend snoozin' (and an extra hour or so of daylight in the coming mornings!) That means you should turn your clocks back one hour before going to bed on Saturday night.
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