On Jan. 15, a bill was passed by South Carolina lawmakers to make daylight saving time permanent. The bill passed unanimously in the state Senate, but had a dozen members of the state’s House of Representatives voting against the measure. With the possibility that it could soon be unrecognized in the state, the reasoning behind why daylight saving time is observed is brought to question.
According to webexhibits.org, daylight saving time is partially observed to take advantage of when there is the most available light on the planet as the seasons change. The idea as we know it was originally conceived by a British builder named William Willett as a way to make the most of the hours of light, particularly the early mornings of spring and summer that usually went missed before DST.
One of the biggest advantages that are claimed of DST is the conservation of energy. With the extra sunlight brought by changing our clocks, less energy is used in the form of artificial lights. However, with the increase in technologies such as TVs and computers, the percentage of energy saved has become negligible.
A report in 2008 to Congress by the U.S. Department of Energy stated, “The total electricity savings of Extended Daylight Saving Time were about 1.3 Terawatt-hour (TWh). This corresponds to 0.5 percent per each day of Extended Daylight Saving Time, or 0.03 percent of electricity consumption over the year.” In the years that have followed, energy use has only increased, likely leading to that 0.03 percent becoming even smaller.
Another drawback of DST is the effects that having to wake up an hour earlier or later has on the human body. Multiple studies have been performed that link lack of sleep from DST to car accidents, suicide, miscarriages and workplace injuries. A study performed in 2013 on the effects of the start of DST on cardiac events found that there was a slight increase in heart attack risk after the spring shift in the year.
A major effect felt everywhere by the time shift is a drop in productivity for workers due to the tiredness experienced when losing an hour of sleep and having to adjust to that change. This, along with costs accumulated from having to program computers to automatically change time and also have workers manually change clocks that don’t automatically adjust, makes DST an event that costs sufficient funds.
Despite these concerns and disadvantages of daylight saving time, only five states have passed legislation at this time to make the event permanent, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. South Carolina looks to join Delaware, Maine, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington, as they wait along with other states such as North Carolina and Georgia for their legislation to make it through the system. Currently, the bill is waiting to be signed by the governor to be made official. However, it will not take full effect until the United States Congress enacts a similar bill. Until then, residents will have to continue to deal with the negative effects that are a result of daylight saving time.
Photo: Sam Ross/ The Johnsonian
