Daylight Saving Time Shifts Time And Routine

Daylight savings time is the practice of moving all of the clocks in the United States ahead by one hour so that the time corresponds to the amount of sunlight expected at said time. The clock changes from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March so that there is more sunlight in the evenings. It is changed from 1:59 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November to reverse that change.

When the time changes, people gain an hour of sleep on the first Sunday in November and lose an hour of sleep on the second Sunday in March.

In 2025, daylight savings time ended on Nov 2. Daylight savings time in 2026 will commence on March 8 and end on Nov 1.

At John F. Kennedy Highschool (JFK), daylight savings time has been harboring mixed feelings. Some say that it doesn’t really affect their day to day life all that much, while others disagree and believe that it causes them to lose sleep and energy, resulting in them doing worse in school.

The article “How Daylight Saving Impacts Your Sleep and What to Do About It,” which was written by Laura López González from University of California San Francisco (UCSF), mentions that many statistics significantly change the days after a time change.

The article says, “There’s about a 6% increase in fatal car accidents, data also suggests increases in hospital admissions for conditions like heart attacks and atrial fibrillation.”

These numbers are just for the Monday following Sunday’s time change. If an increase or decrease in the number of hours you get to sleep causes such a large increase in serious situations such as car crashes and hospital admissions, how do they affect the lives of students that have to wake up early and go to school the next day?

On the official daylight savings time website, daylightsavingtime.info, an article titled “How does DST affect education and learning?” explains the many different ways that students can be troubled by the time change.

“The transition into and out of DST can disrupt sleep patterns,” says the article. “For students, this disruption can impact alertness and cognitive function, potentially affecting academic performance.”

The article also mentions, “Research suggests that students might experience temporary drops in performance immediately following DST transitions.”

Another way that students are affected by daylight saving time, according to the website, is the decreased or increased amount of daylight during after school activities such as sports or other extracurricular activities.

At JFK, many students believe that the daylight saving time changes do not affect them or their education at all.

“Honestly it feels the same,” said Janvi Parmar (9). “The time change didn’t really affect my sleep schedule. I just woke up an hour early on the first day.”

On the other hand, a lot of other students think that that extra hour affects their sleep which in turn affects their performance in school by quite a bit.

Shumaila Mujale (9) mentioned, “The time change causes a very big difference in my schedule that leaves me tired and unable to focus on school.”

Adjusting our clocks twice a year may seem harmless, but for many people that extra hour of sleep can cause a lot of trouble. How does daylight saving time affect your life?

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