Sunshine Protection Act messes with people's routines

Posted Nov. 22, 2022

By Alicia Pacheco Juarez

Staff Reporter

Daylight saving time is something that people in Oregon want to make permanent time and it sounds like a great idea. 

Oregon, along with Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Ohio and other states want to make Daylight Saving time permanent. As of currently, Oregon changed their clocks back an hour to standard time, losing hours of daylight and making it so the sun goes down around 4:30 p.m. This messes up people's sleep schedules as well as making people feel unsafe being outside past 5 p.m. 

Earlier this year the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021, but although it was sent to the House of Representatives nothing has been heard on it. If it gets approved, it would take effect in November of 2023. In between all the issues people can think about when talking about the switching of the clocks to standard time during winter months come the students. David Douglas High School, for example, starts classes at 7:40 a.m, which makes students have to wake up around six or even five in the morning, when it is still dark outside since the sun rises at around seven. Making it dangerous for students who have to walk their way to school or even take the bus. 

The early setting of the sun messes with people's personal clocks, making it so they are tired earlier in the day, just to end up waking very early still in darkness. It limits the amount of activities a person can do during the winter due to the hours of light being spent indoors due to school or work. The reduction of sun hours a person gets can actually have actual physical effects on them, such as lower blood pressure, fatigue, mood changes, muscle weakness and more. Leading people to feeling more negative and down without sun exposure. People are naturally a lot less productive during the winter months, with the cold weather outside and the sun already down at around 5, keeping a permanent time zone would greatly help people's schedules to stay mostly the same and keep up the hours of the day people are productive and active. But yet, we are still to hear from the House of Representatives on if the bill will pass or not.