On Nov. 1, 2026, daylight saving time ended, and Washington clocks moved one hour back to standard time. Earlier this year, the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent, was passed the house vote 308-117, and is currently awaiting passage in the Senate, with President Trump voicing his support. This is not the first bill regarding the clock change that has been introduced in recent times. In fact, just in the last few years, there have been several bills introduced that aimed at making either daylight saving time or standard time permanent.
Daylight saving was initially introduced in the United States in 1918, as a means to conserve energy during the First World War. A century later, questions arise regarding the effectiveness of the clock change, and whether or not “saving daylight” is relevant in our age.
In 2025, Stanford Medicine published a study in which Dr. Jamie Zeitzer describes daylight saving might be preferable for a minority of people (around 15%) who tend to wake up earlier. According to Zeitzer, daylight saving will help adjust their circadian rhythm closer to 24 hours. Researchers estimate that overall, the circadian rhythm (the biological clock in the human body) synchronizes better with more sunlight at the beginning of the day, and less at the end of the day. Zeitzer’s statements are also backed by Johns Hopkins University, which in an interview with biostatisticist Dr. Vadim Zippunikov, also discussed the importance of morning sunlight to the human body. Furthermore, the Associated Press-NORC conducted a poll of over 1200 adults. 12% favored the current clock system, 47% opposed it, and the rest were neutral. However, the same poll taken from the same participants found that 56% actually prefer keeping daylight saving as the permanent time. This means that while having a permanent clock is backed by professionals, little of the public truly favors the clock change, causing disagreement when it comes to which time would be better to keep.
The original purpose of daylight saving to save energy has also been put under question. In a congress report in 1975, researchers noted that throughout March and April (when daylight saving starts), electricity savings are estimated to be around 1%; however, the actual energy savings are unclear due to a possible offset caused by gasoline usage. Furthermore, a congress report in 2008 stated that during four extra weeks of daylight saving in 2007, electricity savings from daylight saving surmounted up to only 0.03% of that year’s electricity usage.
While daylight saving remains an nonpartisan issue of discussion, repeatedly being discussed in Congress, research shows that daylight saving and the biannual clock change have little beneficial effect overall. Health studies and experts note the benefits of standard time for the circadian rhythm, while reports to congress fail to provide significant electricity savings for given time windows. As lighting accounts for less than 4% of total US residential electricity usage in 2025, the necessity of daylight saving and clock changes does not seem to be apparent.
