Days after the House voted in bipartisan fashion to make daylight saving time permanent, a group of doctors and lawmakers is backing an alternative that would make standard time permanent instead.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine said it supports the Sunshine for Our Kids Act. Like the Sunshine Protection Act, the bill would eliminate the twice-yearly clock changes. But the key difference between the two proposals is when the sun would rise and set.
The Sunshine for Our Kids Act is sponsored by Reps. Mary Gay Scanlon of Pennsylvania and Pat Harrigan of North Carolina.
RELATED STORY | House passes bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
Under the Sunshine for Our Kids Act, the current standard-time schedule used from November through March would remain in place year-round. That would shift spring and summer sunrises and sunsets one hour earlier.
The Sunshine Protection Act, which passed Tuesday by a 308-117 margin, would instead move late fall and winter sunrises and sunsets one hour later.
A 2025 AP-NORC poll found that most Americans oppose changing clocks twice a year. Only 12% of respondents support the current system of setting clocks back in November and forward in March. Forty-seven percent oppose the changes, while 40% are neutral.
If Americans do not want to change clocks, would they prefer permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time?
It depends on whom you ask.
Overall, 56% of respondents prefer permanent daylight saving time over permanent standard time. Among self-described “morning people,” however, standard time holds a slight edge, with 50% support compared with 49% for daylight saving time.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports the Sunshine for Our Kids Act.
“Permanent standard time is the healthier choice for all Americans,” AASM President Dr. Fariha Abbasi-Feinberg, a board-certified sleep medicine physician, said in a statement. “We are grateful to Representatives Scanlon and Harrigan for championing legislation that puts health and safety first and helps ensure that mornings are better aligned with natural light and human circadian rhythms.”
RELATED STORY | How doing away with daylight savings might that affect your heart
The group also said, “Permanent daylight saving time would delay morning light exposure, making it harder for children and adolescents to wake, learn and travel safely to school during dark winter mornings.”
If the Sunshine Protection Act became law, some places — including Indianapolis — would see sunrise times later than 9 a.m. around Christmas.
