Fall back: the latest on daylight saving time in Arkansas
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
Yup, this is that weekend — the one many despise because it gets dark earlier.
- And the one some people love because they get an extra hour of sleep.
Driving the news: Daylight saving time ends at 2am on Sunday, Nov. 6, when our phone clocks automatically fall back an hour and the coffee pot timer is suddenly wrong.
The big picture: One 2020 study led by Colorado sleep researchers says there are more traffic accidents following the switch to daylight saving time. Another estimates pedestrian and car fatalities would be reduced — by nearly 400 people a year — if we kept daylight saving time permanently.
- Meanwhile, a biology professor at the University of Washington says standard time aligns more closely with the body’s circadian rhythms.
Flashback: A federal bill, the Sunshine Protection Act, to make daylight saving time permanent cleared the U.S. Senate in March, but stalled in the U.S. House.
- Federal law says states can move to standard time, but must have the approval of Congress to adopt year-round daylight saving time.
Zoom in: Arkansas lawmakers seem as confused on the subject as a sleepy toddler told to get out of bed Monday morning. They've introduced competing bills over the years:
- HB1368, introduced in 2019, sought to adopt standard time year-round for Arkansas. The bill was later withdrawn by its author.
- HB1017, introduced in 2021, sought to adopt daylight saving time year-round, but it died in a Senate committee last October.
Zoom out: One of Axios' reporters in Phoenix, Jeremy Duda, provided us with this perspective: "Arizonans are fiercely proud of our refusal to take part in daylight saving time."
The bottom line: Nothing has changed. We'll keep doing this twice a year until lawmakers decide otherwise.
Worth's thought bubble: We're so polarized, we can't even agree on what time it is.
- Still, I'm pulling for more daylight hours.