By Liz Moyer

Maine state senator Rick Bennett is hoping the third time's a charm.

Earlier this year, the Republican introduced two bills in the Maine legislature, one to shift the state to permanent standard time and the other to move to permanent daylight-saving time. Both bills are still alive, and Bennett is hoping one will pass.

"Just pick one or the other so we can stop changing the time," he said in a telephone interview. He's tried twice before unsuccessfully to establish Maine on permanent daylight-saving time. "At least we're moving the ball forward."

It's that time of year when people gripe about losing an hour of sleep. Most Americans will turn their clocks forward an hour during the wee hours this Sunday morning to switch from standard time to daylight-saving time. It's the "spring forward" half of a semiannual clock-setting ritual.

For about eight months of the year, the U.S. operates in this daylight saving state, when the sun rises slightly later and sets later, allowing for leisurely sunlit hours well into the evening, especially in the summer. During standard time from November to March, the sun rises and sets earlier, and it's dark before dinner in many places, particularly in the winter.

Proponents of daylight-saving time say it allows people to stay active longer in the day, and it boosts the economy because people are out spending money in shops and restaurants longer. The opposite side highlights the health-boosting benefits of standard time, which they say more closely aligns with natural body rhythms.

For what it's worth, while many scientists support standard time for the health benefits, the Mayo Clinic studied 36 million people for five years and found minimal impact on heart health during the time when people switch to daylight-saving time, at least.

What angers people is all the clock changing, especially on the "lose an hour" weekend. There has been a lot of talk about abolishing it, but as Maine state Sen. Bennett has experienced, getting to yes isn't easy.

President Donald Trump acknowledged the struggle during remarks in the Oval Office on Thursday. "It's a 50/50 issue, and if something is a 50/50 issue, it's hard to get excited about it," he said when asked when he's going to get rid of daylight-saving time. "A lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way."

In a poll posted this week on X, Trump's government efficiency senior advisor Elon Musk asked his followers whether they would prefer an hour earlier or an hour later if the daylight-saving time change were canceled. Of the 1.3 million votes, 58% said later, and 42% said earlier.

That is basically the opposite of a just-released Gallup poll, which asked people which of the following scenarios they preferred: standard time year-round, daylight-saving time year-round, or maintaining the current system of switching the clock forward in the spring, waiting a bunch of months, and then switching it back.

Gallup found that 48% preferred standard time the whole year, including in the summer. Another 24% prefer daylight-saving time the whole year, including in the winter. And 19% like the current system. Overall, 54% of people Gallup surveyed said they are ready to ditch the switch to daylight-saving time.

Daylight saving began in 1918 to save fuel after World War I. It wasn't uniformly followed until 1966's Uniform Time Act, except Hawaii and Arizona opted to stick with standard time the whole year.

Americans switched to year-round daylight-saving time in 1974 as a two-year experiment but ditched it after 10 months following loud complaints, mostly having to do with children waiting at school bus stops in the pitch dark winter morning.

Either extreme is worse than the current setup, argues Dr. David Prerau, an MIT-trained computer scientist who wrote Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time. "Whatever happens, it's probably not going to be the final decision," he says.

For a while, it seemed as though those who favored permanent daylight-saving time had the upper hand. State legislatures have considered hundreds of bills and resolutions to establish year-round daylight-saving time in recent years, the National Conference of State Legislatures said.

Twenty states have passed bills or resolutions in favor of it. And two federal permanent daylight-saving time bills are currently in Congress, introduced by lawmakers from Florida, the first state to adopt it in 2018. It just has to wait for federal law to allow it.

As recently as December, Trump suggested he backed abolishing daylight-saving time. Kalshi, the prediction market, puts a 24% chance of daylight saving becoming permanent this year.

Republican state Rep. Steven Doan recently backed a bill in Kentucky supporting permanent standard time, citing the health benefits. He says it's unlikely to pass this term, but he would have a hard time supporting permanent daylight-saving time.

Like Maine lawmaker Bennett, Minnesota state rep Mike Freiberg, a Democrat, has introduced two separate bills, one favoring permanently switching to daylight-saving time and the other sticking with standard time.

"I don't care which we go to," Freiberg told Barron's in an email. "I just want to stop the clock changes. I've wanted to ever since I first had kids and we were sleep training them. Changing clocks is just an anachronism that serves no modern purpose."

Jay Pea, a former software engineer who founded the group Save Standard Time, says he is grateful the debate is at least moving toward picking a side and eliminating the twice-yearly clock change. California is starting on it, he said, as are numerous other states. He's recently visited Washington, D.C., to meet with lawmakers on developing a permanent standard time bill.

Bennett from Maine sees an opportunity for change given D.C.'s new disruption-focused mood. "This may not be as big as renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, but it's in the same vein."

Write to Liz Moyer at liz.moyer@barrons.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

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March 07, 2025 11:21 ET (16:21 GMT)

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