Eliminating daylight-saving time could have great benefits

Spectrum by Randall C. Lorenz

The House Health Education and Social Service Committee recently considered House Bill 409, Elimination of Daylight Saving Time. Three years ago Rep. Vic Kohring, R-Wasilla, introduced House Bill 4, Elimination of daylight saving time. As an aide to the representative, I had the privilege of developing the bill, however, HB 4 was held in the Labor and Commerce Committee and was never heard.

Rep. Ken Lancaster has resurrected the daylight-saving time bill. Supporting the passage of this bill will have a positive effect on the public health of Alaska as well as benefit Alaska's economic posture as a global logistical center.

The biggest reason we change our clocks to daylight-saving time is that it saves energy. Studies done by the U.S. Department of Transportation show that we trim the entire country's electricity usage by about 1 percent each day with daylight-saving time. Daylight-saving time "makes" the sun "set" one hour later and therefore reduces the period between sunset and bedtime by one hour.

In the Lower 48 this means that less electricity would be used. However, by the time daylight-saving time takes effect in Alaska, the effects of the one hour extra of daylight is insignificant and provide no cost savings to Alaskans.

Data suggest that daylight-saving time exacerbates the effects of insufficient sleep and disrupted circadian rhythms that contribute to major public health problems. The average adult today reports sleeping about seven hours each night. When we compare this to sleep patterns in 1910, before Edison's light bulb, we find that the average person slept nine hours each night. This means that today's population sleeps one to two hours less than people did early in the last century. Based upon that information, researchers claim society is chronically sleep-deprived, and even small additional reductions in sleep time have consequences for safety.

Dr. Stanley Coren, in articles published in the 1996 New England Journal of Medicine, confirmed this by showing that the shift to daylight-saving time had an impact on accident rates. The spring shift to daylight-saving time results in a loss of one hour of sleep, while the fall provides an additional hour, which can be used for sleep. Using data from two years of Canadian traffic accident records, Coren found that on the Monday following the shift to daylight-saving time in the spring, there was an increase in traffic accident rates of about 7 percent, while in the fall there was a decrease in accident rates of about 3 percent.

Data drawn from the fatal accident reporting system maintained by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration collected daylight-saving time fatality statistics from 33 states that participated in a research program. Two major points were uncovered by the research. The first is a confirmation of the fact that following the spring shift to daylight saving time (one hour of sleep loss) there is a measurable increase in the number of traffic accidents that result in fatalities. Moreover, there was a measurable decrease in the number of fatalities when following the shift back to standard time -- gaining an hour of sleep.

The increased sleep deficit caused by daylight-saving time is further compounded by the change in illumination levels when driving to work, or that people forget the daylight-saving time change and fail to adjust their clocks and find themselves rushing to appointments to avoid being late. It was common for this lapse in memory to extend to the Monday following the daylight-saving time change.

Taken together then, as a society we are sufficiently chronically sleep-deprived so that a small decrease in sleep duration, such as occurs with the spring shift to daylight-saving time, can significantly increase accident susceptibility, and this relates to higher insurance and workers' compensation rates for all Alaskans.

This article does not address the negative effects of daylight-saving time on mental or emotional health. Nor does this article address the many positive economic benefits of straight standard time with regard to developing Alaska as a global logistical center for the Pacific Rim.

Randall C. Lorenz is a Palmer resident.