It’s that time of year again when we reset our clocks as Daylight Saving Time kicks in for another confusing season of tick-tock mental gymnastics.
Are we springing forward and falling back? Or is it the other way around? For the record, we will be setting our clocks ahead at 2 a.m. Sunday (or very late Saturday night).
Losing an extra hour’s sleep stinks, especially on a weekend. It will take a while for our biological clocks to adjust to the extra hour of daylight.
The change also brings about the requisite food fight about the merits of the whole thing.
Just this week, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), James Lankford (R-OK), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Ed Markey (D-MA) reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make Daylight Saving Time (DST) permanent across the country.
“Soon we will have to comply with the senseless twice a year ‘time change.’ We need to pass my bill to make daylight savings permanent,” Rubio tweeted.
“More daylight in the evenings results in fewer car accidents & robberies. And it allows kids to play outside longer.”
“#LockTheClock.”
Other states – including Arkansas, Alabama, California, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Maine, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming — have pushed or passed similar legislation in the hopes of making DST a permanent thing.
If Rubio’s bill passes it would apply to the states currently participating in daylight saving time. Beyond the health and safety reasons, Rubio points to other benefits that include boosting the U.S. economy.
“The call to end the antiquated practice of clock changing is gaining momentum throughout the nation,” Rubio said in a statement. “Studies have shown many benefits of a year-round Daylight Saving
Time, which is why the Florida Legislature voted to make it permanent in 2018. I’m proud to reintroduce this bipartisan bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent and give our nation’s families more stability throughout the year.”
Rubio has plenty of support for his, um, “timely” cause.
Scott Yates of Denver is another supporter of the #LocktheClock hashtag.
“The vibe I’m picking up everywhere is that it’s time to get this done,” Yates wrote on his website. “With all that’s going wrong in the world, let’s at least make the clocks work. That’s the general feeling I’m picking up all over the place.”
As the battle rages, this much is true:
You’re going to lose an hour’s sleep this weekend.
