Vern Buchanan

Don't change to year-round Daylight Saving Time

This is in response to Rep. Vern Rep. Buchanan’s guest column about his bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent ("Let's lock the clock. Let's make Daylight Saving Time year-round," May 29).

Buchanan stated that according to Stanford Medicine the yearly time changes disrupt circadian rhythms, increasing the risk of stroke and obesity.

This is true.

However, the same study also showed that permanent Standard Time lowered the prevalence of obesity and stroke to a greater degree than permanent Daylight Saving Time.

In 1974 the United States enacted a year-round Daylight-Saving time trial.

It started Jan. 6, 1974, but was repealed later due to severe public disapproval – especially in Florida where several school children were hit by cars in the dark.

Congress reverted to standard time on Oct. 27, 1974.

Standard Time mirrors normal circadian rhythms: it gets dark when it is bedtime and light when it is time to get up.

But permanent Daylight Saving Time causes chronic circadian misalignment by forcing our internal biological clock to fight the natural solar day.

Ending the twice-yearly time change is a good idea.

But adopting permanent Standard Time, rather than permanent Daylight Saving Time, would be a safer and healthier choice.

The benefit of an extra hour of evening sunlight for retail establishments and golf courses during the summer should not outweigh the disadvantages of an extra hour of morning darkness for school children – and for people who have to get up in the morning to go to work.

Erin Tom Vaughan-Birch, Sarasota