Letters to the Editor: Should the U.S. make daylight saving time permanent? Readers have mixed opinions

To the editor: The Senate debate over the House-passed Sunshine Protection Act has revealed a strange double standard (“House votes to make daylight saving time permanent. Would California go along with it?,” July 14). Agricultural lobbyists warn that permanent daylight saving time will disrupt livestock routines and morning distributions, as if farm animals are corporate employees suffering from cognitive burnout.

Cows do not check calendars, manage deadlines or track delivery schedules. They respond to sunlight, not clocks. They only experience disruption when humans force them awake before dawn to satisfy an arbitrary schedule.

This highlights a deeper problem. We have built a society that treats the clock as sacred and human well-being as negotiable. Instead of allowing institutions such as farms, supply chains or schools to adjust their operating hours during winter months, we insist on rigid and uniform time-keeping across the entire economy. As a result, millions of Americans endure dangerous sleep disruption twice a year so that bureaucratic consistency can remain intact.

The economic impact of this rigidity is not theoretical. Human behavior drives the economy, and cognitive fatigue directly reduces productivity, decision quality and workplace safety. When people are forced through abrupt time shifts, the resulting burnout affects everything from classroom performance to industrial output.

Prioritizing livestock routines and institutional inflexibility over human health and economic stability is misguided. If farmers need to adapt to permanent daylight saving time, they can choose to shift their work hours to align with winter sunlight. The Senate should stop using agriculture as an excuse to preserve an outdated time system and finally move toward permanent daylight saving time.

Christophe Perrenoud, Beaverton, Ore.

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To the editor: It is distressing that year-round daylight saving time is again being promoted by our elected officials from both parties. It seems that the only thing the two parties can agree on is something that is guaranteed to harm everyone in America.

They either do not know or do not care that when it was implemented in Florida in 1974, eight children were killed by drivers in the darkness of the early morning. It is hard to understand how it has gained any political traction at all. It is decried by experts in medical, sleep and circadian disorders who favor a return to year-round standard time.

The people who say they want year-round daylight saving time have never experienced it. It was passed but then quickly repealed in the U.S. in 1974, while Russia had its own short-lived experiment that ended in 2014. It was repealed in both countries after a huge majority of the people hated it once they had experienced it.

Protecting children is the one great responsibility of all adults. But here, we have our elected officials actually endangering all American children. President Trump is not concerned about endangering our children if it means more people can tee off on his golf courses. Let us hope that this bill fails to proceed in the Senate.

Terrence Dunn, Roseville, Calif.

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To the editor: Here is the perfect opportunity for the paralyzed Congress to set aside partisan differences and work together to benefit the American people. Twice-yearly clock changes are deeply unpopular, and decades of research have linked them to negative health and safety effects.

Ending this outdated practice — whether by adopting permanent standard time or permanent daylight saving time — would demonstrate that political compromise is not a sign of weakness, but a mark of leadership and a commitment to serving the public interest.

Sharie Lieberg-Hartman, Manteca

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To the editor: The days will get shorter in the winter and longer in the summer no matter what. Noon should be when the sun is directly overhead.

I would like to go back to six months of daylight saving time. People like farmers, who have to get up early to work, don’t want more darkness in the morning.

Lake Nofer, Woodland Hills