This weekend, you lost an hour of sleep thanks to daylight savings time. Surely you’re not a big fan of that, but the idea of more daylight is something you can get behind. There are many positives that come about with DST, so much so that a movement is brewing in America to move to DST year-round. There are five ways that Americans’ lives would immediately improve if we did. First, lives would be saved. The evening rush hour is twice as fatal as the morning because far more people are on the road and there’s more alcohol in drivers’ bloodstreams. The second reason DST should be made permanent is crime would decrease. Crime rates are 30 percent lower in the morning to afternoon hours, even when those morning hours occur before sunrise when it’s still dark. The third reason is a big one: energy would be saved. Having more sun in the evening requires not just less electricity to provide lighting, but reduces the amount of oil and gas required to heat homes and businesses when people need that energy most. The fourth reason is that the biannual clock switch is bad for health and welfare. It wreaks havoc on people’s sleep cycles. Lastly, recreation and commerce flourish in daylight and are hampered by evening darkness. Americans are less willing to go out and shop in the dark, and it’s not very easy to catch a baseball in darkness either. These activities are far more prevalent in the early evening than they are in the early morning hours, so sunlight is not nearly as helpful then.
Why the US should stay on daylight savings time permanently
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