Will Daylight Saving Time Ever Become Permanent?

Daylight saving time is coming to an end in just a few days, despite a big push to end the practice of "falling back" every November.

While moving the clocks back an hour — which happens this Sunday at 2 a.m. — gets us an extra hour of sleep, some people say there's greater benefit to just scrapping it entirely.

So, where are we at with the possibility of making daylight saving time permanent, and why do so many people want to see that happen?

The Sunshine Protection Act

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Hope sprang eternal in March, when the Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act.

All 50 senators voted in favor of the bill from Republican Marco Rubio of Florida, which was co-sponsored by Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey. That bill would make daylight saving time permanent and effectively eliminate the seasonal changing of the clocks.

Every spring we set our clocks forward an hour, and every fall we set them back, but why? Learn the real story behind Daylight Saving Time.

The legislation still needs to pass the House and be signed by the President in order to be fully approved. Right now, it's stalled in the House, where some representatives support the opposite switch — making standard time permanent.

According to the text of the Sunshine Protection Act, the new time wouldn’t go into full effect until 2023, with clocks not rolling back after springing ahead for daylight saving time in March of next year.

After that March 2023 spring forward, no more time changes would take place in most of the U.S.

Could Permanent DST Prevent Crashes?

There's a new study out from the University of Washington that predicts year-round daylight saving time would prevent thousands of car crashes involving deer.

The bill has to pass the House to become law, but if passed, it could mean the end of changing clocks twice a year.

Proponents of sticking with DST all year point to the potential to fewer deadly crashes overall, and say studies show the bi-annual switch has led to a small increase in workplace injuries and medical errors.

Sleep Experts Against Year-Round DST

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine not only opposes going with daylight saving time all year, but is pushing for permenant standard time.

The AASM says that permanent standard time is the "better option for the health of American citizens," because it aligns best with the body's circadian rhythm.

The AASM does agree, though, that changing the clocks twice a year should stop.

Why Do We Change the Clocks to Begin With?

The U.S. first adopted daylight saving time in 1918 to save oil and electricity during World War I. It was unpopular and abolished after World War I.

On Feb. 9 ,1942, Franklin Roosevelt instituted a year-round daylight saving time, which he called "war time." This lasted until Sept. 30, 1945.

With Americans about to set their clocks back this weekend, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for daylight saving time to be permanent in the U.S., meaning no more time changes and later sunsets.

Daylight saving time didn't become standard in the US until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandated standard time across the country within established time zones. It stated that clocks would advance one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April and turn back one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

States could still exempt themselves from daylight saving time, as long as the entire state did so. In the 1970s, due to the 1973 oil embargo, Congress enacted a trial period of year-round daylight saving time from January 1974 to April 1975 in order to conserve energy.