To the Editor:

Are you exhausted from switching from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time? It happens twice a year and we all have to adjust to it. Some look at it as a minor inconvenience. However, switching times is extremely expensive. It has horrible impacts on our health, and has a tremendous effect on children.

Switching time costs us tons of money. Did you know about $2 billion is spent on switching times each year? The reason it is so expensive is because of opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is what economists call switching back and forth from Standard Time to Daylight Savings.

Since we are converting to two different schedules, business workers also have to convert their employees’ hourly wages. Even if it is a small change, it can still cost loads of money. Changing these wages costs us time and money. This affects the economy deeply.

The time switch affects our health and well being. It causes both kids and adults to not get enough sleep at night, because their sleep patterns are interrupted. This creates sleepy kids, and cranky adults.

Additionally, when someone is sleep-deprived, they have trouble focusing. For example, research shows that fatal car accidents increased 6 percent due to the time switch. Data also shows that hospital admissions increase for conditions like atrial fibrillation and heart attacks. Switching times causes major health problems like these, but it also causes small problems. Some health issues are headaches, stress, and sometimes nausea.

Standard Time especially hurts children. Kids often do not get to spend any time in the sun, which is harmful for their development. As a kid who lives in upstate New York, I, like most of us in the winter, go to school in the dark and return home in the dark.

Personally, I have been loving the extra hour of daylight we have since we switched to Daylight Savings Time on March 9! It gives me more time to spend outside after a school day. It gives me more time to be a kid.

The time switch affects students’ performance in school. It throws off their study and sleeping habits. Kids lose about three hours of sleep the week following a time switch. This creates stress, which makes it hard to remember things, and to perform their best in the classroom.

Studies show that grades dropped 2% in schools after a time switch. This may seem like a small number, but this is actually a significant amount.

Congress came close to passing the Sunshine Protection Act, but it has always stalled. This would make Daylight Savings permanent. It is time for congress to abandon Standard Time and pass the Sunshine Protection Act! The benefits would be so monumental!

Overall, Daylight Savings Time is better for us than Standard Time. We are creatures of light, the Sun. Most people would benefit from more sunlight at the end of the day.

It has too many negative impacts on people across the globe. Changing times twice a year adds great expenses to businesses and the economy. It also has major and minor impacts on our health and physical ability.

We can’t forget that Standard Time, lack of sunlight at the end of the day, affects kids the most. We need to choose one time and stick with it. The obvious choice is Daylight Savings Time. Please urge your representative in Congress to pass the Sunshine Protection Act. 

Jasmine Mishra

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Jasmine Mishra is a student of Robert Flynn at Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland.