CBS News (11/4, Sundby) reported daylight savings time has “caused considerable consternation amongst Americans. Parents who want their children to head to school in the daylight can appreciate ‘falling back’ to standard time, but those who want the sun to shine long enough to play in the park after classes may want to keep daylight saving time year-round.” Around 20% of “adults said the time change has affected their mental health in a negative way, according to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association that was conducted in September.” APA President Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A., said, “This is a very, very high number of people who actually say that the change in time will give them some depression, some discomfort, some uneasiness.”
The Hill (11/3, Shepherd) reported, “Efforts to make daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time have been largely unsuccessful.” Even though the US Senate “passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March 2022, a bipartisan bill that would have put an end to the biannual changing of clocks, the proposal ultimately stalled in the House and has since made little progress.”
NPR (11/3, Treisman) reported, “About 5% of adults in the U.S. experience” seasonal affective disorder (SAD), “and it typically lasts about 40% of the year…says” the APA. Symptoms “include feelings of sadness, fatigue, cravings of carbs and starch and associated weight gain.” Physicians “believe SAD is linked to the reduced sunlight exposure and circadian rhythm disruption that are hallmarks of the winter months.”
Related Links:
— “When does the time change for daylight saving time 2023? What to know before clocks “fall back”,”Alex Sundby , CBS News, November 4, 2023