Efforts in the Pacific Northwest to end the time change are still active

A few years ago, Bill Griesar, a neuroscience expert at Portland State University, visited Fort Vancouver High School to teach children about the brain.

But the class started at 7:30 a.m. and was half empty.

“Kids told us they were trying to go to bed,” Griesar said. “But that’s not how the brain develops. They stare at the ceiling. You’re awake at one in the morning.”

The tendency of young people to stay awake late has a biological origin, said Griesar. During the teenage years, children begin to separate from their parents in preparation for building their own adult lives. And what better way to break away from your parents than to be awake at different times?

Griesar brought research on the topic to the Vancouver School District, and district leaders eventually moved start times to 8:30 a.m. Griesar tells the story to illustrate how important natural circadian rhythms are to health and well-being.

“The time change is bad for us,” he said.

A Study in the journal Current Biology found a 6% increase in fatal accidents after switching to daylight saving time.

Turning our clocks forward or back an hour, as we all do on Sunday mornings, increases the risk Heart disease, stroke and work accidents. It can even disrupt agriculture, as crops and animals rely on sunlight to regulate their diet and sleep.

In recent years, lawmakers in states across the country have proposed time change laws. In Oregon, a bill was passed in the last legislative session. Another law was passed and put into effect in Washington in 2019.

But politicians in Washington and many other states have made a crucial misstep in their legislative efforts to make time easier: They have decided to switch to permanent daylight saving time, which the federal government won't allow. If they had chosen to keep standard time instead, no federal approval would be required.

Jay Pea, the nonprofit group's president Save standard timesays companies prefer daylight saving time because they believe it is better for the economy.

“The whole thing was invented to increase shopping opportunities,” Pea said. “These are shopping centers. These are restaurants, car dealerships. Companies that think that Americans will go out and shop if they leave their workplace and see that it is still sunny. They're going to go play golf. On the other hand, if you leave work and it’s dark, you’ll probably go home, cook dinner and be with your family.”

Pea is based in Arizona, a state that does not require supplemental sunshine and has not observed daylight saving time since 1968. Other sunny jurisdictions like Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam also ignore daylight saving time.

Pea said computers, flight and train schedules are automatically linked to the local time zone, so there are no real problems. But out-of-state calls can be confusing.

“There's kind of a brief moment of, 'Where does this go from here?' How did they change their clocks?'” he said. “But it's not our fault. It’s the fault of those who change their clocks.”

Another peculiarity of Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam is that none of their major cities are on the border of a state that observes daylight saving time. Imagine the problems if Portland and Vancouver used different timing standards.

Pea believes states' gradual approach to changing their individual time standards is the reason efforts to end time changes have not been successful so far. He believes Oregon, Washington and California need to coordinate change.

Daylight saving time was first introduced in the United States in 1918 to save energy during World War I. Increasing daylight hours meant people used less energy to light their homes and businesses, leaving more fuel for war.

Many people believe that the practice of changing clocks has something to do with the work of children on farms. But Pea said that was a myth started in Boston by a newspaper that published an article about the reasons for daylight saving time.

“And one of them was, 'If we get farmers to harvest an hour earlier in the morning, they'll be fresher.' And of course the farmers said, 'That's Poppycock!' That's bizarre!'” Pea said.

The time changes imposed by the government affect our daily lives in many ways.

Rabbi Motti Wilhelm of Chabad SW Portland just printed out the prayer schedule for the coming year. The Jewish calendar is based on the phases of the moon and the position of the sun.

Wilhelm pointed to the longest day of the year, Friday, June 20, and pointed out that the evening Sabbath begins at 9:03 p.m., which is quite late for a one-hour service. He said if Oregon simply stuck to standard time, services could start at 8:03 p.m. instead.

“Standard time all year round kind of makes sense because that’s the actual time. The sun should be clear at midday,” said Wilhelm.

Oregon lawmakers will try again to abolish the time change next year. In the meantime, enjoy that extra hour in bed on Sunday.