As Coronation Day approaches, I’m trying to identify anything positive to look for from the coming reign of King Donald, in keeping with my resolution to preserve and protect my mental health in 2025.
This could be it: daylight saving time.
“The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate daylight saving time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!” King D posted on Truth Social last month.
“Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.”
“Inconvenient” is a mild term for the MASTER of UNHINGED OUTRAGE to employ for the twice-yearly disruptions to our circadian rhythms. The editor in me would suggest “annoying” or “irritating.” Or worse.
Dr. Beth Malow, a neurologist and sleep specialist at Vanderbilt Medical Center, would probably add “unhealthy.”
“It’s not one hour twice a year,” Malow said in 2019. “It’s a misalignment of our biological clocks for eight months of the year. When we talk about DST and the relationship to light we are talking about profound impacts on the biological clock…. It impacts brain functions such as sleep-wake patterns and daytime alertness.”
The impact, it seems clear, is not positive.
We are now in the between time, otherwise known as standard time. But as currently mandated, we will spring forward an hour at 2 a.m. March 9 and fall back again in the wee hours of Nov. 2.
I think if you were to put the issue on a ballot, most Tennesseans – most Americans – would vote to end the back and forth. But the question is how? Should we abolish daylight time or by make it permanent?
The Tennessee General Assembly, in one of its rare instances of addressing something that actually matters, has already spoken on the issue. In 2019, it passed a law calling for permanent daylight time to become effective only after Congress makes such a move possible.
The U.S. Senate in 2022 unanimously approved a bill, known as the Sunshine Protection Act, to make daylight time permanent.
“Changing the clock twice a year is outdated and unnecessary,” said Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, a courtier to the once-and-future MAGA monarch.
But the bill has stalled in the House, with no movement at all since its arrival. A new version filed in 2023 made it to a subcommittee, but no further.
Unsurprising, perhaps, given the general dysfunction of the closely divided House. But maybe it also has something to do with indecision on the best approach: permanent daylight or permanent standard.
As you may know, the country has a rather tangled history with daylight time. Initially used to save energy during both World Wars, it was made permanent in 1974 – a situation roundly criticized that lasted less than a year.
Why permanent daylight time is thought to be a good idea now is a little puzzling. I’m obviously not the only person around who was also alive in 1974. Both the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Medical Association support permanent standard time instead.
“By artificially shifting the clock time an hour forward,” the Academy of Sleep Medicine stated in 2022, “daylight saving time causes a misalignment between the clock time and solar time, which interferes with the timing of our circadian rhythm. This disruption results in a condition known as ‘social jet lag,’ which is associated with an increased risk of obesity, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and depression. If daylight saving time becomes permanent, then Americans will be living with social jet lag year-round.”
I don’t know what metabolic syndrome is, but there you have it: Permanent daylight time could leave us fat, bummed out and potentially dead. I, for one, am not in favor of any of those.
So I prefer year-round standard time. I don’t have much faith in the Republican Party’s “best efforts,” as mentioned by the king-elect. But maybe there’s a way to stimulate support for a return to year-round standard time.
We could call it God time.
Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville.