For a PR Writing course at Georgetown, we had to argue for multiple sides of an issue in competing op-eds. The exercise involved using the same opening and format, to argue another side of the issue.
How Switching to Daylight Saving Time Is Killing You
This past Sunday, Americans woke up and set their clocks forward one hour. In doing so, they unknowingly increased their chances of heart attack, depression, dying in a car crash, higher electrical bills and wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in productivity. To defend against these unseen consequences, Congress must establish a year-round, unchanging standard for U.S. time.
Despite popular belief, the financial cost of setting our clocks forward is actually greater than any savings in electrical use. In fact, the effect is opposite of its intent. On the Monday after switching to Daylight Saving Time, America’s lost hour of sleep costs them $434 million annually, as a 20% decrease in productivity accumulates a deficit not recovered during the “fall back” to Standard Time. Indiana found, after adopting Daylight Saving Time in 2006, that while its citizens did use less residential lighting during this period, they ended up using 1% more electricity overall (with monthly increases as high as 4%), as their demands for heating and air conditioning increased to acclimate to the temperatures during their new waking hours. This fell in line with findings by the Australian government in 2000, when, for the Olympic Games in Sydney, they increased Daylight Saving Time by two months, only to find later, it didn’t reduce demand for electricity. Further, a recent study using decades of U.S. mining data found that not only do workers sustain a greater frequency of injuries the Monday following the switch to Daylight Saving Time, but they suffer more severe injuries. The severity of an injury is measured in days of work lost—which grew 67% from injuries occurring on that one Monday alone.
Aside from the financial burden, the sudden shift in sleep patterns due to changing time places a burden on our physical health. The human circadian clock is primed to adjust gradually, “in response to the changing length and intensity of sunlight,” and the sudden shift between Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time can have jarring effects. The risk of having a heart attack can increase 25% the Monday following the shift to Daylight Saving Time, which experts say is “compounded by one less hour of sleep.” By the Tuesday following the shift to Daylight Saving Time, the American Academy of Neurology finds an 8% higher risk of stroke overall, a 20% higher risk for those over 65, and 25% for those with cancer. And the resulting loss of sleep from shifting times has a physical affect for us on the roads, as well, as drivers are involved in 8% more traffic accidents, with a 17% increase in traffic fatalities on the Monday after the switch.
And no matter the direction the shift in time goes, the disruption of sleep patterns is detrimental to mental health as well. In the weeks after the start of Daylight Saving Time, suicide rates rise. This suggests that, despite increased sunlight and the science behind Vitamin D’s role in emotional health, “small changes in chronobiological rhythms are potentially destabilizing in vulnerable individuals.” At the other end, when clocks are set back to Standard Time in the fall, and observers gain an hour of sleep, the shift is followed by an 11% increase in the number of depression diagnoses—an increase that lasts an astonishing 20 weeks before leveling off. Unfortunately, this isn’t followed by a decrease during the switch to Daylight Saving Time—meaning the specific switch to Standard Time during the fall is the culprit.
It is time to Congress to stop the practice of switching timeframes, simply in the name of tradition and unpursued ideas. Whether they continue Daylight Saving Time throughout the year, or switch to another system, the effects of jumping from one to the other is having real consequences. Citizens should phone their representatives and advocate for a standard, year-round timeframe. Their financial, physical and mental well-being depends on it.
Set Your Clock, and America, Forward
This past Sunday, Americans woke up and set their clocks forward one hour in observance of Daylight Saving Time. Despite temporarily entering this safer, health-promoting, economy-boosting, and crime-reducing time zone, they did so with plans to abandon it in the fall. Congress should make this switch permanent and legislate year-round Daylight Saving Time.
Adding an hour of daylight to every evening saves lives. Year-round Daylight Saving Time would save 350 American lives annually, as Standard Time’s darkened evening commutes are associated with a 300% increase in fatal vehicle-pedestrian accidents. More travelers take to the road during the nighttime rush hour, producing about twice as many accidents as morning commutes regardless of time zone. As such, the steep increase in fatalities suffered during the Standard Time evening rush far outpaces the reduction of those in the morning. And further, the disruption in sleep cycles from changing times contributes to increases in accidents at both ends: in switching to Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time. Aside from saving lives through preventing accidents, Daylight Saving’s extra light-hour does so through promoting health: a study of 23,000 children from nine countries found a definitive increase in their exercise on days with later sunsets, even when controlled for weather or time in school. As for adults, researchers found that during 2007, the Daylight Saving period yielded an additional three percent of Americans who engaged in outdoor recreation, that otherwise would have stayed indoors. Further, the lost sleep from switching time zones causes a whole host of health issues: On the Monday following the shift to DST, the risk of heart attack can increase 25%, the risk of stroke 8%, and there’s a major increase in the frequency and severity of workplace injuries.
Crime thrives in darkness, and adding an additional hour of evening daylight would reduce crime across the board. Researchers have found robbery rates fall 27% during the extra sunlit evening hour, and 7% for the entire day, at the start of Daylight Saving Time in the spring. And while robbery, assault, car theft and other types of common crime peak between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m.—when the sun is setting and potential victims are less able to identify attackers—they remain steadily lower during morning hours, despite time setting. Steve Calandriollo, law professor at the University of Washington, summarizes that a permanent switch to Daylight Saving Time would “remove an hour from the criminal workday,” reducing crime and its ripple effects. Crimes carry a cost beyond their initial tear in the societal fabric, from direct costs like medical fees to legal services to indirect costs like pain and suffering. Research from the Brookings Institution and Cornell University finds that at an estimated social cost of $42,000 per robbery, and $240,000 per rape, a three-week extension of Daylight Saving Time in 2007 saved the U.S. $246 million, simply from crimes reduced by added daylight. This would equal at least four billion in “social savings” each year.
And that’s not the only monetary benefit to Daylight Saving Time: adding an hour of daylight every evening both saves energy and boosts the economy. Looking at both residential and commercial energy use, the U.S. Department of Energy found a four-week extension could save 0.5% of electricity per day for the entire country. At these numbers, that’s enough energy to power 100,000 households for a year. Permanently switching to Daylight Saving Time can yield further savings of $434 million annually in lost productivity—the estimated cost due to sleep cycles disrupted by the switch from Standard to Daylight Saving. Utah State University Economist William F. Shughart II estimates that the simple physical action taken by every American to change their clocks twice a year can cost the country $1.7 billion annually in opportunity cost—a ten minutes that could be spent more productively elsewhere. Savings aside, year-round Daylight Saving Time can provide a sales boost to certain industries: In lobbying Congress to extend Daylight Saving Time, the grilling and charcoal industries cite an extra $200 million in sales from an extra month of Daylight Saving Time; the golf industry, an additional $400 million per month; and convenience stores, where Americans buy 80% of their gas, $1 billion for the extra month.
It’s time for Congress to stop the practice of switching timeframes, simply in the name of tradition. Daylight Saving Time can save American lives, money, time, and anguish. Citizens should phone their representatives and advocate for year-round Daylight Saving Time. Their physical and financial well-beings depend on it.