Groggy Americans can turn their bloodshot eyes on Sunday to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is re-upping his bill to end the twice-annual clock-change ritual and make daylight saving time permanent. That ritual is set for 2 a.m. on Sunday when the hour hand will spring forward to 3. The Senate passed Rubio’s bill unanimously last year, two days after Americans endured the lost hour’s sleep that occurs when the time change takes effect each March. “This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid,” Rubio said in a statement, adding, “Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support.” But the House declined to take up his bill last year and sleep scientists said they don’t support it. “Virtually every scientific community is against permanent daylight saving,” said Elizabeth Klerman, a neurology professor in Harvard Medical School’s division of sleep medicine, at a recent forum. Who doesn’t like sunshine? The Sunshine Protection Act is a misnomer, according to Klerman, since clock changes don’t affect the amount of daylight. What changes is the time of day during which the light shines. Going with daylight saving time year-round would be “like living in the wrong time zone,” Klerman said. The annual return to standard time in November restores the early light that Klerman said people need: "Morning light is how your body knows what time of day it is. If you've ever had jet lag or worked a night shift, you know when your body clock is out of sync." Why it matters: Poor sleep is associated with negative health outcomes, including diseases like Parkinson’s, cancer and obesity, as well as accidents, reduced work productivity and sedentary behavior. We tried this before: In 1973, Congress decided to try permanent daylight saving time as an energy-saving measure but ended the experiment after 10 months because it was so unpopular. “I can’t cope any more,” one Long Island mother told The New York Times at the time. “I'm just staying in bed.”
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