After years of failed legislation in Oklahoma to change how the state observes daylight saving time, a law now making its way through Congress would stop clock-changing for all Americans.
The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a measure Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent. The Sunshine Protection Act, which would be effective next year, still needs House approval and the president's signature to become law.
Many Oklahomans who've been sleep deprived in the past week since daylight saving time began are likely to celebrate any change to go to one year-round time. But depending on individuals' lifestyles, the change could be almost as dramatic as losing an hour every spring.
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"It doesn't matter how we set our clocks. God sets the time," the president of the Tulsa-based American Corn Growers Association once told the Tulsa World.
"Farmers have never liked daylight saving time," Gary Goldberg said, but that was 24 years ago. Since then, nearly a dozen states across the U.S. have chosen year-round daylight saving time as opposed to standard time.
The federal change would effectively do away with standard time, the "winter hours" that last about four months in most of the country.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing to discuss possible legislation last week. Chairman Frank Pallone agreed that it is “time we stop changing our clocks" but said he was undecided about whether daylight saving time or standard time is the way to go.
“It could be weeks — or it could be months” before a vote on the proposal in the House, Pallone said in March.
As for plants and animals, daylight saving has little effect, said Gus Holland, agriculture educator for the OSU Extension in Tulsa County.
"Depending on which side of it that you’re on, now farmers have more day length at this point to be able to go out and do stuff for their farms or ranches," he said Thursday.
But humans are on a circadian rhythm, meaning standard time is more the "body's natural clock," said Dr. Jabraan Pasha, internal medicine physician with the University of Oklahoma-University of Tulsa School of Community Medicine.
"For a lot of people, they think having another hour of light during the day may be better," he said, "especially people who have seasonal affective disorder … that could cause some mental health issues."
Pasha agrees that first and foremost in importance is to "stop having us go back and forth," pointing toward research that shows negative health outcomes of losing an hour of sleep each spring.
“(With) spring forward, there appears to be an increased risk of heart-related complications, an increased risk of stroke and things like that," he said.
The change also seems connected to an increase in car accidents, said Dr. Alessandra Gearhart, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine specialist with OSU Medicine.
“The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, they actually have a position statement to try to adopt permanent standard time as opposed to adopting permanent daylight saving time," Gearhart said. "Most of us believe that having permanent standard time would actually help us be more aligned."
The United States tried year-round daylight saving time before during the energy crisis in the ’70s, and it was widely despised, Rep. Kevin West said after he introduced daylight saving legislation for Oklahoma in 2019. The emergency measure failed after eight months as the dark mornings distressed many Americans, notably parents with children waiting in the dark for school buses.
In Oklahoma, using daylight saving time throughout the winter would mean many students would begin classes in the dark, with sunrise not until after 8:30 a.m. But year-round standard time for Oklahomans would be likely to have its own challenges, with such an early sunrise that birds might become our alarm clocks as early as 5 a.m.
Oklahomans would have to consider their own lifestyle to know which year-round system they would prefer, though changing federal law could make the question moot. Pasha said daylight saving has its merits, especially in considering mental health.
“I think the benefit of getting an extra hour of sunlight in the winter, for me personally, is worth it," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to include information on the likelihood of a timely House vote.
Correction: The story originally misidentified the university health system for Dr. Alessandra Gearhart. The story has been corrected.
Featured video: Senate passes bill to make daylight saving time permanent
CNET reports the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection bill in the hopes of putting an end to changing our clocks twice a year. The bill was reintroduced by Sen. Marco Rubio in 2021.
