CA Leg: Combat COVID-19 and Protect School Start Times with Permanent Standard Time
An open letter to all California legislators, submitted electronically to each state senator and assemblymember on 2021 January 12–14. Linked references to inline citations are listed at the end.
Dear Honorable Legislator,
Thank you for your commitment to improving the health, safety, and education of all Californians. I humbly write on behalf of my nonprofit campaign to ask you author an emergency bill to opt the state out of Daylight Saving Time (DST)’s “spring forward”. Doing so can combat COVID-19 with better sleep, it will protect school start times with morning sunlight, and it is immediately permitted by the US 1966 Uniform Time Act.
Scores of organizations representing millions of scientists, doctors, teachers, and parents oppose both seasonal and permanent DST and endorse permanent Standard Time. These include the California Sleep Association, National Parent Teacher Association, National Safety Council, American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, Start School Later, American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, and Society for Research on Biological Rhythms.[AASM][CSC][ESRS][RIVM][SRBR]
Healthy sleep is essential to viral immunity (including COVID-19),[Meira][Panda][Ray & Reddy] and for years the CDC has considered sleep deprivation to be a nationwide epidemic.[Jin] Springing clocks forward to DST acutely deprives sleep. Leaving clocks forward on DST chronically deprives sleep (average 19 minutes nightly). DST’s chronic circadian misalignment manifests as statistically significant increases in accidents, diseases (cancers up 12–36%), and healthcare costs, and as statistically significant decreases in education, productivity, and wages (down 3–5%). Standard Time preserves morning sunlight, when human biology needs it most.[AASM][Borisenkov][CSC][Curtis][ESRS][Gibson][Giuntella][Gu][Jenkins][Juda][RIVM][Roenneberg][SRBR][Watson]
Voters approved 2018’s Prop 7 to end clock change. It did not mandate permanent Standard Time or permanent DST. Assemblymember Chu followed with AB-7 for permanent DST, which stalled and was always federally forbidden.[Sheeler][Skelton][Watson] Only permanent Standard Time is viable. And again, biologists warn permanent DST would be more harmful than biannual clock change.
Scientific polling shows strong public support to end clock change, with slight preference for Standard Time.[AP] History shows public support for permanent DST reverses to opposition once its dark winter mornings are experienced.[BBC][Ripley][Yorkshire] Permanent DST would delay California sunrises to 8:44am, and past 8am for 3.5 months. It would undo the benefit of starting school later.[Cell Press][Skeldon & Dijk] Standard Time keeps sunrise before 8am, when most work/school starts,[CDC][Silver] for healthier sunlight exposure, circadian alignment, sleep, alertness, and immunity.
Please act quickly; clocks are scheduled to change on March 14. Science, medicine, and schools will support you. Neighboring states will join. You can lead the nation in the renewed movement for naturally healthy, permanent Standard Time, during this unprecedented moment in history. My nonprofit campaign would be glad to offer a draft bill, informative graphics, expert statements, and personal contacts within the scientific community. Please reach out to me anytime.
Sincerely yours,
Jay Pea
Save Standard Time
PO Box 40238
San Francisco, California 94140
SaveStandardTime.com
LinkedIn.com/in/SaveStandard
American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2020). “Call for Elimination of Daylight Saving Time”. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. https://aasm.org/american-academy-of-sleep-medicine-calls-for-elimination-of-daylight-saving-time/
AP-NORC (2019). “Daylight Saving Time vs Standard Time”. Center for Public Affairs Research. https://apnorc.org/projects/daylight-saving-time-vs-standard-time/
BBC (2014). “Russia: Putin Abolishes ‘Daylight Savings’ Time Change”. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-28423647
Borisenkov et al (2016). “Seven-Year Survey of Sleep Timing in Russian Children and Adolescents”. Biological Rhythm Research. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307547013_Seven-year_survey_of_sleep_timing_in_Russian_children_and_adolescents_chronic_1-h_forward_transition_of_social_clock_is_associated_with_increased_social_jetlag_and_winter_pattern_of_mood_seasonality
Canadian Society for Chronobiology (2019). “Turn Back the Clock on Daylight Savings: Why Standard Time All Year Round Is the Healthy Choice”. The Globe and Mail. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-turn-back-the-clock-on-daylight-savings-why-standard-time-all-year/
Cell Press Staff (2019). “Permanent Daylight Savings May Cancel Out Changes to School Start Times”. EurekAlert!. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/cp-pds041819.php
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). “School Start Times for Middle School and High School Students — United States, 2011–12 School Year”. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6430a1.htm
Curtis (2019). “Daylight Saving Time: Harmed by Hands of the Clock”. The Irish Times. https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/daylight-saving-time-harmed-by-hands-of-the-clock-1.4064179
European Sleep Research Society (2018). “Joint Statement to the EU Commission on DST”. EU Commission on DST. https://esrs.eu/joint-statement-to-the-eu-commission/
Gibson & Shrader (2015). “Time Use and Productivity: The Wage Returns to Sleep”. Williams College Department of Economics Working Papers. https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wilwileco/2015-17.htm
Giuntella & Mazzonna (2017). “Sunset Time and the Economic Effects of Social Jetlag Evidence from US Time Zone Borders”. Journal of Health Economics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167629618309718
Gu et al (2017). “Longitude Position in a Time Zone and Cancer Risk in the United States”. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. https://cebp.aacrjournals.org/content/26/8/1306
Jin & Ziebarth (2019). “Sleep, Health, and Human Capital: Evidence from Daylight Saving Time”. The National Bureau of Economic Research. https://ideas.repec.org/p/yor/hectdg/15-27.html
Juda et al (2019). “An Open Letter to the BC Government in Support of Permanent Standard Time”. Simon Fraser University. https://vault.sfu.ca/index.php/s/sAnv3Z4bcSwY4Gm
Meira e Cruz et al (2020). “Putative contributions of circadian clock and sleep in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection”. European Respiratory Journal. https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/55/6/2001023
Panda (2020). “Beyond Sanitizing and Social Distancing — A Healthy Circadian Rhythm May Keep You Sane and Increase Resilience to Fight COVID-19”. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/beyond-sanitizing-and-social-distancing-a-healthy-circadian-rhythm-may-keep-you-sane-and-increase-resilience-to-fight-covid-19-135535
Ray & Reddy (2020). “COVID-19 Management in Light of the Circadian Clock”. Nature Reviews. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41580-020-0275-3
Ripley (1974). “Senate Votes Return to Standard Time for Four Months and Sends Bill to Ford”. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/01/archives/senate-votes-return-to-standard-time-for-four-months-and-sends-bill.html
RIVM (2019). “Standard Time More Beneficial for Public Health Than Summer Time”. Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu. https://www.rivm.nl/en/news/standard-time-more-beneficial-for-public-health-than-summer-time
Roenneberg et al (2019). “Daylight Saving Time and Artificial Time Zones — A Battle Between Biological and Social Times”. Frontiers in Physiology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2019.00944/full
Sheeler (2019). “Daylight Saving Time Will Continue in California for Now, as Lawmaker Delays Bill”. Merced Sun–Star. https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/california/article234946067.html
Silver (2014) “Which Cities Sleep In, and Which Get to Work Early”. FiveThirtyEight. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-cities-sleep-in-and-which-get-to-work-early/
Skeldon & Dijk (2019). “School Start Times and Daylight Saving Time Confuse California Lawmakers”. Current Biology. https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30312-4
Skelton (2018). “Year-Round Daylight Saving Time? More Dark Mornings Is Just One Downside”. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-daylight-saving-time-20180705-story.html
Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (2019). “Why Should We Abolish Daylight Saving Time?”. Journal of Biological Rhythms. https://srbr.org/advocacy/daylight-saving-time-presskit/
Watson (2019). “Time to Show Leadership on the Daylight Saving Time Debate”. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6557642/?report=classic
Yorkshire (2018). “British Summer Time: Why Do We Change the Clocks?”. Yorkshire Evening Post. https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-summer-time-why-do-we-change-clocks-313791
