The “Zeitfeld” (Time Field) clock installation by Klaus Rinke in a field of daffodils.
(Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)Daylight Saving Time is going into effect this weekend, and just thinking about it makes me tired. We’re all going to lose an hour of sleep, but is that really true? We only lose an hour of sleep if we’re planning to wake up the same time we normally do. If we can sleep in, then it just shortens our day, not our sleep time.
It’s not truly an hour either. Many studies throughout the years have shown that when we “fall back” when daylight saving time ends, we really only get about twelve extra minutes of sleep. This time of the year, when we “spring ahead,” we only lose about forty minutes of sleep.
The one certain thing is that we’ll all enjoy an extra hour of daylight. That additional sixty minutes could be very useful. However, springing forward also increases the chance of heart attacks by twenty-four percent on Monday after the time change.
How Daylight Saving Time Affects Kids
When it comes to our children, there is one thing that seems to work to help them adapt to the change. Each night this week, it’s a good idea to move up their bedtime by about ten minutes so they can gradually get used to the change.
My brother is in Arizona, and he never changes his clocks. Half of the year he’s two hours behind, and the other half it’s three hours. Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Samoa also leave their clocks untouched year-round.
According to Congress.gov, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 would eliminate clock changing for everyone in America. It was introduced in January of last year, and the “bill makes daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time.”
It also says that “states with areas exempt from daylight saving time may choose the standard time for those areas.”
One more time change reminder. When we spring ahead or fall back, it’s a good time to change the batteries on our smoke alarms.
