To Fall or Not To Fall: A Look at Daylight Saving Time
Clara Shirley | Nov. 4, 2025
As we turn the clocks back one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST), one glaring question comes to mind: why “spring forward” to begin with?
As it turns out, the history of DST and time zones in the United States is closely tied to the history of transportation, and both are relatively recent concepts for Americans. The time zones we know today (Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific and Alaska) were adopted in 1918 in an effort to coordinate time across the nation due to railroad concerns, while DST was only instituted in 1966 following the creation of the Department of Transportation (DOT) through the Uniform Time Act. While DST had existed prior to this in other countries, this was the first time it was adopted in the United States.
DST is also commonly associated with the conservation of energy, as it allows for longer hours of sunlight. The starting and ending dates of DST have fluctuated over time to reflect the United States’ concerns about energy consumption, and the starting and ending dates we use today were first adopted in 2007 following the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
The issue of reducing our collective energy consumption via DST could be debated. There is inconclusive evidence that we use less electricity during DST, as electricity use is also impacted by geographic, climate and economic conditions. In fact, while we get more light during the evening while observing DST, we lose a lot of morning light, which is arguably more important in a society that prioritizes early start times for school and work.
In a world with automated clocks, such as those on our computers and phones, it is easy to forget all about DST until you wake up at your usual time in either complete darkness or full sunlight. It is also very simple nowadays to find out what time it is anywhere in the world, as the internet allows global times to be accessed by anyone. Therefore, coordinating transportation nationally is no issue and has not been for a long time. The implementation of DST seems redundant and complicates the observance of a standard time across the nation, especially when we allow some states to opt out of it completely.
While DST is standard in the majority of the United States (excluding Hawaii, the territories and most of Arizona) there have been several bills introduced by N.C. lawmakers at the state and federal levels to either permanently adopt DST, meaning Americans would leave their clocks wound forward, and to permanently end the observance of DST, meaning when Americans “fall back” to standard time, we would stay back.
American citizens have complicated feelings about the time change each year. Most people agree that we should either do away with or permanently adopt DST, and it seems that many don’t have a preference as long as time is consistent throughout the year. The widespread frustration with DST stems primarily from the fact that people often have a difficult time adjusting to the time change, and there is an increased risk for traffic accidents and missed appointments, work shifts and school attendance the day after the switch.
There have been several pushes in N.C. for the discontinuation of time change, but there has also been disagreement about how that discontinuation should happen. Former N.C. Republican Congressman Madison Cawthorn introduced a bill in 2021to the U.S. House of Representatives calling for the permanent end of DST, but it did not pass. The following year, former N.C. representative Jason Saine introduced a bill in the N.C. General Assembly that would make DST permanent, but it also did not pass. In fact, no bill like Saine’s could pass in the United States unless Congress first passed a different bill allowing states to permanently adopt DST, which, recently, Congress seems to be in favor of. Interestingly, while states can choose to opt out of DST, they cannot yet choose to adopt it year-round.
Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton recently blocked the bipartisan “Sunshine Protection Act” that would make DST permanent nationwide. Cotton expressed that this act would make winters more dangerous, as the sun would rise much later in the day. Light, both natural and artificial, has often been seen as contributing to safer communities, as there is higher visibility for drivers and less perceived risk of crime.
Observing DST also has a real impact on human health, as it disrupts our circadian rhythm. The loss of one critical hour of sleep each year is why many people prefer “falling back” to “springing forward.” One hour may not seem like a lot, but any college student working on a late-night project can tell you that the difference between seven and eight hours of sleep can drastically change the course of the next day.
DST is supposed to allow the states to observe a “standard time,” but with four distinct time zones across the continental United States alone, DST seems to contradict this observance. Our “standard time” is relative to where in the country we are. This has always been true, even before the implementation of time zones, as towns used their own individual solar exposure to determine what time it was. While one can certainly see why we would need to standardize time, DST just seems like an extra legal garnish, especially in a technologically advanced world where our sense of time is fully automated.