Daylight Saving Time Is Actually Bad for You

This forced mini jet lag seems to be fueling everything from stress and sleeplessness to a surge in car crashes

Credit: Abdul Aziz Bin Mohamed / EyeEm / Getty Images

You’re not the only one losing sleep and ranting over the change to and from daylight saving time. A survey in July revealed that 63% of Americans support eliminating the seasonal time changes. The lost or gained hour of sleep has a lot of scientists and lawmakers peeved as well.

In fact, there’s a veritable war going on against this frustrating, outdated, and arguably ineffective and unhealthy artificial time warp, which, interestingly, has its very roots in efforts to battle real wars.

There was a time when the nation could fall back on the idea that daylight saving time made sense: saving energy during wartime or when oil prices skyrocketed in the 1970s. Fast-forward to 2020, and, well, this forced mini jet lag seems to be fueling everything from stress and sleeplessness to a surge in car crashes, with conflicting evidence on whether it saves energy.

How it works… and doesn’t

Daylight saving time (DST) starts on the second Sunday of March, when, at 2 a.m., clocks are set forward one hour and people presumably lose an hour of sleep (though scientists say not…