Mark The Calendar; This May Be Our Last Fall Back!

Since I was young, I have always complained about "springing forward" and "falling back." I never understood why we would need to change times in any circumstance. However, with new bills being passed, Daylight Savings changing our clocks might come to an end!

Via NBC News

March of this year marked one of the biggest advancements in the debate around Daylight Savings Time. A bill, "The Sunshine Protection Act," has been trying to be passed since then to make the "spring forward" time standard. However, some specialists in health take particular interest in different times. Americans also have their opinions on if we should change a "perfected" system. More and more opinions stack onto the House and make it even more difficult.

“'We haven’t been able to find consensus in the House on this yet,' Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) said in a statement to The Washington Post. 'There are a broad variety of opinions about whether to keep the status quo, to move to a permanent time, and if so, what time that should be.'"

Many people have their specific opinions. Some say to stick to the obvious status quo and some say to switch it up because of health or safety reasons. If you are one who does not conform to either and doesn't know what they believe, a list of pros and cons might help you.

Pros of Daylight Savings Time	Cons of Daylight Savings Time
DST promotes safety	DST is bad for humans' health
Driving becomes safer, car accident rates lower, and the risk of pedestrians being hit by a car lessens when there are longer light hours in the morning.	There is an increased potential of a heart attack when circadian rhythms are disrupted.
DST is good for the economy	DST is widely voted against by Americans
​Later daylight times increase shopping, sales in retail stores, and more use of gas and bought food items.	Many studies have found that 61% of Americans agree to get rid of Daylight Savings Time.
DST promotes active lifestyles	DST drops productivity
Britannica ProCon.org states, "Hendrik Wolff, PhD, Associate Professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University, stated, because of DST 'people engaged in more outdoor recreation and less indoor-TV watching… An additional 3 percent of people engaged in outdoor behaviors who otherwise would have stayed indoors.'”	On the day of "spring forward," sleep deprivation and "cyber-loafing" become prominent problems in our society. Workers in their jobs also become less productive since they are losing one our of their sleep schedule.
	DST is expensive
	Caused by DST time changes that other countries do not adopt, airline time miscommunications cost up to $147 million dollars.

With many disagreements in the House, the only thing left to do is wait for an agreement in the House that then is shared with President Biden. If Biden signs the act, then changing the clocks will not be done in November of 2023, if he doesn't sign it, the act never sees the light of day.

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Thank you for reading this and I hope the extra hour of sleep helped you out!