Some people — probably those without small children or needy pets — might get an extra hour of sleep Sunday. That’s because daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, when the time falls back to 1 a.m.
That means we’ll get a little more light in the mornings. Today’s sunrise in Portland was at 7:56 a.m. and Sunday’s will be at 6:57 a.m.
The trade off, of course, comes in the afternoon. Today’s sunset will be at 5:51 p.m. and Sunday’s will be at 4:50 p.m. But experts say standard time is better for our health.
“There are three clocks that we have: We have a body clock, we have a sun clock and we have a social clock. Our health is optimized when our body clock is aligned with the sun clock, and that’s most aligned when we’re on standard time,” said Dr. Nathaniel Watson, a professor of neurology and the co-director of the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center. “When we go to daylight saving time, it’s like dosing the entire population with an hour of permanent jet lag.”
In many areas across the country, including Oregon, there is a push to make daylight saving time permanent. The Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act in March that would make this happen, but it hasn’t moved out of committee in the House.
Rep. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee that has jurisdiction over the issue, said in a statement to Reuters, “We haven’t been able to find consensus in the House on this yet. There are a broad variety of opinions about whether to keep the status quo, to move to a permanent time, and if so, what time that should be.”
Reuters reported that Congress is not expected to reach agreement before the end of the year, which means the bill would have to be reintroduced in the Senate next year.
Many scientists and doctors support ending the annual time travel that comes with jumping ahead or back by an hour. But they prefer the use of standard time — the zone we inhabit from November to March.
“We should change our clocks this weekend and then never touch them again. We should just stay on standard time,” Watson said in a statement. “Nobody wants to change clocks back and forth.”
“Permanent standard time is just the more natural way to go about our lives.”
— The Oregonian/OregonLive
