As Breus tells mbg, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) has long suggested that we adopt Standard Time, not Daylight Saving Time.
According to Breus and AASM, permanent DST could lead to lasting negative health effects. Because our bodies are naturally more well aligned with Standard Time, permanent DST could disrupt our internal clocks, resulting in a permanent sleep phase delay and subsequently, chronic sleep loss. Read: Just because it’s lighter at night and darker in the morning doesn’t mean we won’t have to get up as early for our jobs, school, etc.—but we may feel inclined to stay up later anyway.
“Daylight Saving is not consistent with our internal biological clocks, called your circadian rhythm,” Breus says.
There’s other evidence that suggests permanent DST could result in perpetual social jet lag, Breus adds, while Standard Time is typically associated with better physical and mental health outcomes.
And according to Shelby Harris, Ph.D., director of sleep health at Sleepopolis and author of Women’s Guide to Overcoming Insomnia, “If the Sunshine Protection Act becomes law, people may experience more difficulty waking up in the morning and falling asleep at night—especially awakening in the mornings in the fall and winter.”
Namely, she explains, with permanent Daylight Saving Time, “We would have less light in the morning to help wake us up and more light in the evening making it more difficult to fall asleep,” adding there’s no question we should stop switching back and forth, and echoing Breus and the AASM that our bodies are more aligned with Standard Time.
