Billionaire Elon Musk polled users of his social media platform X about how they want to approach ending daylight saving time (DST).
Musk asked in a post Wednesday, “If daylight savings [sic] time is canceled, do you prefer” an hour earlier or an hour later.
About 58% of respondents said an hour later, while nearly 42% said an hour earlier, with more than 1.2 million users having voted as of Thursday morning. That implies respondents would prefer permanent DST to remaining on standard time year-round.
Musk’s poll highlighted a debate that has simmered in the U.S. in recent years, as lawmakers weigh potentially ending the twice-a-year tradition of adjusting the clocks to “spring forward” into daylight saving time and “fall back” into standard time.
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The U.S. standardized DST across the country with the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which made clock changes in the spring and fall the practice in all states other than Arizona and Hawaii, which opted out.
Moving to DST permanently or remaining on standard time permanently would require an act of Congress, even as 18 states have enacted laws that would provide for permanent DST if Congress allows such a change, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In March 2022, the Senate passed a bill by unanimous consent that would’ve made daylight saving time permanent had it become law. However, the Sunshine Protection Act, introduced by then-Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., stalled in the House, and several senators said they would have objected to the unanimous consent request — effectively blocking the bill — had they known it was up for consideration.
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Since then, lawmakers have introduced several bills aimed at either making DST permanent or allowing states to make their own decisions independent of Congress. Other measures at the state level have proposed making standard time permanent by ending DST.
A report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) notes that several studies have been conducted on some of the effects of clock changes as well as the beneficial and negative effects of DST and standard time.
A 1975 report by the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) found no significant energy savings or differences in traffic fatalities. While it found statistically significant evidence of increased fatalities among school-age children between January and April 1974 when year-round DST was temporarily in effect when compared with the same non-DST period the year before, NBS looked at the months individually and noted there was no difference in March and April.
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CRS noted that other studies found the DST impact on crashes wasn’t statistically significant and that one study observed that while there was inconsistent short-term data, the long-term effects of DST could suggest a positive effect with fewer accidents. It added that the long-term results “may be attributable to factors other than light.”
The Department of Energy in 2008 studied the impact of extending DST on energy consumption and found that it corresponded to a 0.03% decrease in electricity consumption. The agency said there was insufficient evidence to determine whether extended DST had measurable impacts on gas consumption or vehicle traffic volume.
Several studies have reviewed the potential health effects of semiannual clock changes. A 2013 study found evidence consistent with prior trends that “shifts to and from DST might be associated with transient increases and decreases in the incidence of [acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack], respectively.”
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine issued a recommendation in 2020 that the U.S. transition to a year-round fixed time, writing that “current evidence supports the adoption of year-round standard time, which aligns best with human circadian biology and provides distinct benefits for public health and safety.”
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