“We have a lot of data to go to a permanent Standard Time,” Burman said. “So hopefully (Daylight Saving) will, in the next few years, get eliminated.”
There are biological reasons the time change is harmful, said Dr. Jigme Sethi, physician-executive for Sleep Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. The body has an internal clock that governs many functions and runs on a 24.2-hour cycle, the circadian rhythm of activity and rest. There is also a solar clock that pays attention to light and darkness and helps set the internal clock, Sethi said. When those are properly aligned, the body functions normally.
But with Daylight Saving, there is more darkness in the morning, when the body is trying to wake, and more daylight into the evening, when rest and then sleep should be coming on, Sethi said.
This can lead to immediate consequences. The number of fatal accidents increases by 6 percent the weekday after, and those accidents are more likely in the morning, according to a 2020 study. An analysis of criminal sentences handed down on the Monday after the time change found sleep-deprived judges gave out prison terms that were 5 percent longer than those on the preceding or following Mondays, one study found.
Medical errors also seem to rise soon after the time change, Sethi said.
But there are also long-term consequences, particularly for children, Burman said.
Daylight Saving Time is more diabolical than losing an hour of sleep, experts say https://t.co/m41qUbirkX
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) March 7, 2025
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