Some Pa. lawmakers want to end daylight saving time, but impacts are uncertain

by Peter Hall, Pennsylvania Capital-Star
April 29, 2026

Changing clocks to spring forward and fall back has its detractors, but is making daylight saving time or standard time permanent a better idea?

Traffic safety and sleep science experts testified Wednesday before the state House Intergovernmental Affairs and Operations Committee on a trio of competing bills that would end the twice yearly ritual.

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Under the federal Uniform Time Act, signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966, states may opt out of daylight savings but may not make it a permanent change. So, state legislators and Gov. Josh Shapiro could exempt the commonwealth from the federal daylight saving mandate by passing a single bill.

But the committee’s chairman, Rep. David Delloso (D-Delaware), said he’s not ready to call a vote.

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The benefits of ditching daylight savings time are clear on paper: They include better sleep and health, and improved academic performance by high school students. Two states, Arizona and Hawaii, have already done it. 

Dr. Indira Gurubhagavatula, a University of Pennsylvania professor of medicine, said science supports a permanent return to standard time. She said data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control shows Americans are chronically sleep deprived and losing an hour of sleep each spring is significant, she said.

“We all know how this makes us feel the Monday after the switch in April, we are exhausted, we’re unwell, we have headaches, we can’t focus, we’re late for school or work, and we make mistakes. But there are also even more serious problems,” said Gurubhagavatula, who is also a member of the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, said.

There are more heart attacks, strokes, hospital admissions, emergency room visits, injuries, accidents, and exhaustion, she said. “People get depressed. There are more overdoses and even suicides.”

Those problems can last for months after a time change because of the way the human body’s internal clock works. 

Darkness in the evening prompts the body to produce the hormone melatonin, which signals the  brain to sleep. Bright light in the morning tells the brain to turn off melatonin secretion, and we wake up,  Gurubhagavatula said. “So we need morning light and we need evening darkness for our internal clock to synchronize with the day night cycle.”

Changing the clocks disrupts circadian rhythm, she said, and often leads to a condition called social jet lag, when people stay up later after a time change and then try to catch up on sleep on the weekends. 

For teenagers, this is exacerbated by a hormonal shift to later bedtimes and later wake ups, said Amy Goldman, co-founder of the Regional Adolescent Sleep Needs Coalition, which advocates for later start times in school to allow students to get more sleep.

So far, 48 schools or school districts in 23 Pennsylvania counties have adjusted their bell schedules to better align with adolescent sleep needs, she said.

“To fully realize these benefits for our adolescent students, we must ensure that our state’s clock supports the same principles,” she said.

But committee members noted routines such as agricultural work or youth sports could be thrown off kilter by mornings or evenings that are permanently darker. 

“It absolutely begs more discussion because of the impact on families in Pennsylvania,” Delloso said.

Rep. Russ Diamond (R-Lebanon) is the prime sponsor of House Bill 119 to  end the use of daylight saving time in the commonwealth. Rep. Milou Mackenzie (R-Lehigh) is the prime sponsor of H.B. 153 to put the commonwealth on daylight saving time permanently if Congress also passes legislation allowing it. 

The committee is also considering House Resolution 349, introduced by Rep. Joe McAndrew (D-Allegheny), to urge Congress to require all states to permanently observe daylight saving time year-round.

Five such bills are also before Congress: House and Senate versions of the Daylight Protection Act would make daylight saving time permanent in all states. One Senate bill would set clocks half an hour ahead across the country; two in the House would make year-round daylist saving optional for states.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, lawmakers across the country have introduced around 800 bills dealing with daylight savings time. Nineteen states have passed legislation similar to Mackenzie’s bill. Some, including Pennsylvania’s neighbor Delaware, adopted it with provisions that they would change their clocks only if contiguous states also choose permanent daylight saving time. None of the commonwealth’s other adjacent neighboring states have taken action.

If the General Assembly passes legislation to end or embrace daylight savings time, it would be a leader in the northeastern United States. Diamond introduced his bill by noting the original intent of daylight saving time was to save energy. 

“Saving energy never really materialized. But what did materialize is measurable negative impacts on health, public safety, productivity and academic achievement,” he said. “Changing clocks does not save any daylight either. It merely forces us to adjust our bodies to a government mandate which attempts to subvert geography and the Earth’s natural seasonal changes.”

Daylight savings is relevant to road safety because it affects how much daylight there is during peak times for travel – and there’s a clear link between darkness and fatal crashes, according to Chuck Farmer, vice president for research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. 

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Fewer than a quarter of trips begin at night, but nighttime crashes account for more than half of motor vehicle occupant deaths and 77% of pedestrian fatalities. Farmer noted the United States is in the midst of what he described as a road safety emergency, with highway deaths increasing by a fifth between 2014 and 2024.

Farmer said, however, that a study of road deaths around the time changes was inconclusive. Researchers looked at U.S. Department of Transportation data for five weeks before and after time changes between 2010 and 2019. 

Crashes resulting in the deaths of vehicle occupants fell 7% in the five weeks after the fall time change, when setting clocks back an hour makes mornings brighter, and increased 12% after the spring time change. The opposite was true for pedestrians and bicyclists, with fatal accidents increasing 13% in the fall and decreasing 24% in the spring.

“Really the only conclusion that we have from our study is that you don’t want the roads to be dark when people are out there, because there are more fatal crashes in the dark,” Farmer said, adding that improvements in road design, lighting and pedestrian safety are known solutions.

Asked whether choosing daylight savings over standard time or vice versa would be more beneficial to public safety, Farmer replied, “Not changing the clock anymore is better than changing the clock twice a year.”

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