As a biology professor who studies circadian rhythms, Washington University’s Erik Herzog has strong feelings about the seasonal time changes that will have us “falling back” on November 5 — namely, that we need to scrap them. The former president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms is proud to have led the organization to a position that has now been adopted by all of the medical and scientific societies that have taken a position on time changes: That permanent Standard Time is the preferred schedule, and our twice-annual adjustments are not worth the damage.
Herzog joined us last week to share why these seasonal switches are dangerous — and just who has him on speed dial.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
People love falling back. What's wrong with getting an extra hour of sleep?
There's nothing wrong with getting an extra hour of sleep. We all need an extra hour of sleep. Our society is chronically sleep deprived.
I would argue that we need to make this permanent. We need to have everybody stay in Standard Time, because the goal with the fall back is to set things up so that there's more light in the mornings, for people's commute, for kids to get to school and be alert and for everybody to be at their best.
So your real argument is that we should just never spring forward after this. What’s so bad about that change?
For the three days after we spring forward, we see increases in car accidents and heart attacks. It’s disruptive, it's confusing, it's even fatal. And so it's just a matter of whether we want to switch to Daylight Saving Time, which we currently observe for nine months out of the year, or Standard Time, which is the way things were originally designed when they made the time zones.
The way they made our time zones was figuring out where in the middle of the time zone that the sun would be directly overhead at noon, for most of the year. And right now, for nine months of the year, we're living contrary to that.
So why is there such a big lobby for permanent Daylight Saving Time?
Senators like Marco Rubio are really in favor of getting rid of time-switching, and originally they said, “Let's go to permanent Standard Time.” When that didn't fly, they said, “Well, how about permanent Daylight Saving Time?” Now they've done the math, and they think they can make an extra billion dollars a year in the golf industry with people being able to go to the golf courses after work when it's still sunny. And that's probably true; it probably would make Florida more money, or at least the golf industry in Florida.
The problem is that the rest of us who live further north or live further west have real consequences on not just our health but our safety. The reason we got rid of permanent Daylight Saving Time in 1974 was that some kids got hit by a bus in Florida waiting for the bus in the morning in the dark. Parents in Florida advocated for an end of national daylight saving time — so it didn't even last for a year.
Yet many people would rather deal with the inconvenience of the time changes then have to give up afternoon sun. What's your best argument of why it's worth it to sacrifice those precious hours?
Living on Standard Time doesn't take away afternoon sunlight. It's still there. It's just a matter of recognizing that people associate Daylight Saving Time with summer’s long days, right? Well, you still have long days in the summer when you observe Standard Time. You still have light after work in the summertime. It's not like your afternoons go dark when you live on Standard Time. Most of us work ‘til 5 p.m., and so you can do the math and you start to realize, “Oh, there are 150 days a year with light after 5 p.m. when you're on Standard Time.” And if we were on permanent Daylight Saving Time, we would have 180 more days of dark commutes at 8 a.m. than if we were on Standard Time.
It felt like there was this growing consensus that these seasonal switches were a problem and then we lost that momentum. Do you think we're stuck with seasonal time changes for years to come?
I think we are seeing movement in the opposite direction now, with more and more politicians being interested in permanent Standard Time, and that’s because of the way the Sunshine Act was passed, by what's called unanimous consent — nobody voted for it, it just got slipped in when nobody was looking. When it did suddenly pass, there was a huge uproar.
I've been very surprised at the senators who call me. People who I think of as Marco Rubio's allies politically are very upset, and they say their contingencies are much more interested in permanent Standard Time.
Senators call you? Like, they do their homework and call up an expert in circadian rhythms?
Well, their staff call me. I’m happy to take those calls.
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