Americans Divided Over Daylight Saving Time: Poll Shows 47% Oppose Biannual Clock Changes

Around the US, the clocks will go back one hour at 2 am Sunday. (Representational)

New York:

Despite the promise of an extra hour of sleep, the end of daylight saving time remains one of the most dreaded weekends on the American calendar.

According to a recent AP-NORC poll, only 12% of US adults favor the current system requiring clock changes twice yearly, while 47% oppose it and 40% remain neutral.

This Sunday at 2 am local time across the country, clocks will be turned back one hour to standard time, bringing more morning daylight. The poll conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that many Americans find this change unwelcome, with most preferring extra evening daylight if forced to choose.

Pranava Jayanti, 31, from Los Angeles, strongly opposes the switch. Having grown up in India where clocks remain constant year-round, he was warned about the practice by relatives before coming to the US for graduate school.

"But when it actually happened, it still took me by surprise," Jayanti explained, particularly noting how quickly darkness fell in the afternoon.

Calls to end the biannual time changes have included legislation that stalled after Senate passage in 2022. Organizations advocating for a single year-round time include the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, with even former President Donald Trump expressing support via social media.

However, the poll found that permanent daylight saving time would be unpopular with a significant portion of Americans, particularly morning people.

The United States first implemented time shifts over a century ago during World War I and again in World War II. A 1966 Congressional law allowed states to decide whether to observe daylight saving time but required uniformity within their borders. Currently, all states except Arizona and Hawaii make the changes, with these two remaining on standard time year-round.

Time changes also occur in regions like Canada and Europe but not in Asia. Europe and North America shift clocks one week apart, creating a brief period when the time difference between these regions is one hour shorter than usual.

While approximately half of US adults oppose the switches—including 27% who "strongly" oppose them—many remain indifferent. This is especially true among adults under 30, with 51% expressing neutrality. Those over 30 tend to dislike the biannual changes more, with about half expressing opposition.

If forced to choose one permanent time, 56% of adults would prefer daylight saving time with less morning light but more evening brightness. About 40% prefer standard time with brighter mornings and darker evenings.

Self-described "night people" strongly favor permanent daylight saving time at 61%, while "morning people" are almost evenly divided—49% preferring permanent daylight saving and 50% choosing standard time.

Vicky Robson, a 74-year-old retired nurse from Albert Lea, Minnesota, identifies as a night person who would definitely choose permanent daylight saving time.

"I don't get up early in the morning, so I don't need the light in the mornings," Robson said. "I need it more in the late afternoon, early evening. I like when it's light later, because that's when I do things. I've always worked the evening shift and now that I'm retired, I would go out and take a walk after supper if it was light."

Scientific evidence doesn't overwhelmingly favor either time system, though experts offer advice for adjusting sleep and habits during transitions.

Recent Stanford University research suggests that maintaining a single time would be healthier for human circadian rhythms than switching twice yearly, with standard time showing slightly better health benefits than daylight saving time.

"The more light you have earlier in the morning, the more robust your clock is," explained Jamie Zeitzer, study co-author and co-director of Stanford's Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences.

However, Zeitzer noted this is just one consideration among many, including economics and personal preferences.

"This is something that people feel very passionate about, and their passion is usually driven by... themselves, what they would prefer," he added. "There is no time policy that you can have that will make everyone happy."

America briefly attempted permanent daylight saving time in the mid-1970s. The intended two-year experiment lasted less than one year due to overwhelming unpopularity.

Chad Orzel, physics and astronomy professor at Union College and author of "A Brief History of Timekeeping," explains that time shifts have become culturally ingrained.

"People really like having the long evenings in the summer," he said. But "we drop back in the fall so that we don't have the thing that everybody hates, which is it being dark until after you get to work.... We have earlyish sunrises in the winter and late sunsets in the summer. We like both of those things. The price we pay for that is we have to change the clocks twice a year."