Daylight saving time could become permanent this year, and if it happens will make Wyoming’s mornings shorter and its nights longer. It also could potentially make lives longer or shorter, too.
Vern Buchanan, the Republican House representative for Florida's 16th Congressional District, has reintroduced House Resolution 139, the Sunshine Protection Act. It would end the biannual tradition of changing the nation’s clocks by making daylight saving time permanent.
If passed, the United States would “spring forward” one final time Sunday, March 8, and there would be no “fall back” in October, or ever. Daylight saving time (DST) would be the time nationwide.
If DST becomes permanent, the sun will rise around 8:49 a.m. in Cody on Dec. 21, 2025, — the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. Sheridan’s sunrise would happen around 8:42 a.m.
Sunrise would occur around 8:32 a.m. in Rawlins, 8:33 a.m. in Casper, and 8:21 a.m. in Cheyenne on the same day.
Most of the United States wouldn’t see sunrise until after 8 a.m., and many closer to 9 a.m.
Wyoming and 18 other states have passed measures to make DST permanent, keeping the clocks an hour ahead. However, the federal government will ultimately decide whether to keep or abolish the archaic practice.
But setting aside politics, what would permanent DST mean for Wyomingites?
“We're not going to change the hours of daylight Wyoming gets,” said Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day. “That's going to stay the same, obviously. The biggest change would be how much light people have when they start and end their day.”
Saving & Standard
DST doesn’t make any day longer or increase the sunlight Wyoming receives. It just feels and looks like it does.
Moving the clocks an hour ahead in spring means later sunrises and sunsets from March to September when there’s more daylight. The days feel longer because of the extra hour or two of sunlight in the evening, especially at the peak of summer.
Permanent DST would extend that trend into winter.
During winter, many 9-to-5 workers would wake up and start their morning commutes in the dark during the winter but would have more sunlight while heading home. Moving the clocks back in October to standard time means earlier sunrises and sunsets when there’s less daylight.
An Hour Either Way
Day has a professional reason for preferring standard time over DST. He doesn’t mind springing forward and falling back, but standard time gives him an extra hour to get winter weather forecasts.
“At this time of year, meteorologists get all our new model data sets an hour earlier than we would when we spring forward,” he said. “That’s why we like falling back. We’re able to tell people things an hour earlier.”
Day acknowledged this is a technicality that only meteorologists fully understand, but it syncs their weather modeling better with the rest of the world by getting data earlier. Practically, there wouldn’t be any changes to the amount of daylight Wyoming gets each day.
Day said that making DST permanent could theoretically keep people safer on the roads. At this time of year, most people working a 9-5 job will find the sun setting by the time they get in their vehicles to go home, which increases weather-related hazards.
“When you drive after sunset, you run the risk of roads being icier as it gets colder and darker earlier in the afternoon,” he said. “One negative change at this time of year is that the sun’s going down when most people leave work.”
There’s a factual basis for Day’s assessment.
A 2020 study published by Current Biology found that the DST transition increases the risk of fatal traffic accidents by 6%. The study also found that the change impacted residents of Western states more than those in Eastern states.
Day believes that making DST permanent makes logical safety sense. More warmth and sunlight would potentially mean less ice on the roads when traffic is heaviest.
“It’s something I’ve thought about,” he said.
Early To Rise
Dennis Sun, publisher of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup and an agriculture columnist for Cowboy State Daily, has always liked DST. It makes those early mornings on the ranch that much easier.
“People are getting up earlier, but they didn't realize it,” he said. “They’re up an hour earlier, but the clock says they aren’t. I’ll probably catch hell, but I kind of like the status quo.”
Sun knows that opinions on DST vary from person to person. He doesn’t mind springing forward and falling back but knows plenty of people who do.
“Some people have a hard time adjusting,” he said. “There are benefits to keeping it, abolishing it, and making it permanent. It depends on the person, their occupation, and their recreation.”
Historically, the United States has implemented and repealed DST multiple times. The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established the modern standardization of DST, but the practice was enshrined in federal law by the passage of the Standard Time Act in 1918.
Even then, the exact timing of DST has changed multiple times. The current practice – starting on the second Sunday of March and ending on the second Sunday of September – began in 2007.
Sun recognizes the complexity of DST. He’s thankful that Wyoming hasn’t implemented any changes, given how that would complicate interstate commerce if the neighboring states didn’t do the same.
“The whole country would have to do it, or there’d be mass confusion,” he said. “What if you lived in Sundance and South Dakota didn't do it? Or if you lived in Evanston and Utah didn't do it. That would take a lot of getting used to.”
Sun didn’t have a strong opinion on whether DST should become permanent nationwide. He only hopes the nation doesn’t regret whatever changes it makes.
“I'm afraid some people would want to go back to the way things were once we changed,” he said. “Most clocks change automatically, so that’s not a big deal. But do you want the earlier morning or the later evening? That’s different, person-to-person and state-to-state.”
Out Of Rhythm
Even if many clocks automatically adjust to DST, many people don’t adjust as easily. The change can be detrimental to people already struggling with sleep disorders.
“It confuses the body,” Jerry Crawford, director of the Wyoming Sleep Disorder Center, told Cowboy State Daily in 2022. “It had adjusted to a certain amount of light at a certain time, and things getting dark at a certain time. And then we flip that, and it takes a little bit of time to readjust.”
Reports of fatigue, sleepiness, irritability, and insomnia are commonly reported whenever we spring forward and fall back. However, the physical adjustment to DST might be a little exaggerated.
Kendra Chitwood, manager of Western Sleep Medicine in Cheyenne, said they occasionally deal with DST-related sleep problems. However, those symptoms arise with people that already have trouble sleeping.
“It definitely can affect your sleep cycle,” she said. “Waking up earlier or later is going to throw your sleep off, but we don’t experience many (DST-related sleep issues) here.”
Chitwood believes that making DST permanent is a good idea. However, it would probably not profoundly change sleep cycles, even if the back-and-forth is a little tiring.
“We deal with a lot of medical issues at Western Sleep Medicine,” she said. “DST doesn’t make much of an impact on our work.”
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) took a more assertive stance in 2020. A position statement published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine said the AASM favored abolishing DST and retaining year-round Standard Time, which is what the nation “falls back” to every October.
The AASM said DST is less aligned with “human circadian biology.” That misalignment has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease risk, metabolic syndrome and other health conditions.
Later To Bed, Later To Rise
Benjamin Franklin famously quipped, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." Ironically, he was also an DST proponent, which has theoretically made men less healthy, wealthy, and wise with later sunrises and sunsets.
The Sunshine Protection Act has been presented to the 119th Congress. If it passes the Republican-majority House and Senate, President Donald Trump would be open to signing it into federal law and making DST permanent.
Wyoming senators John Barrasso and Cynthia Lummis praised the bill when Florida senator Marco Rubio introduced it in 2022.
“Changing technology means that farmers, ranchers, and folks in the agriculture industry do not need to rely on something like a biannual time change to help them do their jobs,” Lummis told Cowboy State Daily in 2022. “At this point, Daylight Saving has become more of a headache for parents and schoolchildren than a help for our agriculture industry, and I think it is time we bring it to an end.”
“This is an issue I hear about at home in Wyoming in the grocery store and at church every time we have to change the clocks,” Barrasso said. “We even began church service on Sunday in Casper with the choir singing a song they had written about the changing of the clocks. Making daylight saving time permanent will make a lot of people in Wyoming very happy.”
So, will the 119th Congress and President-elect Trump permanently end this “headache?” Only time will tell — whether that's daylight saving time forever or not.
Contact Andrew Rossi at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
