Trump says GOP will push to end daylight saving time
Health effects of Daylight Saving Time
Daylight Saving Time (DST) can negatively impact health by disrupting sleep patterns, leading to potential issues like increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, workplace injuries, traffic accidents, mood disturbances, and cognitive impairment. Dr. Fahmi Farah, a cardiologist, joined LiveNOW from FOX to discuss.
WASHINGTON - President-elect Donald Trump said Friday that he wants to turn the lights out on daylight saving time.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social, he called daylight saving time "inconvenient" and "very costly."
"The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn’t!," Trump said on Dec. 13. "Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation."
Setting clocks forward one hour in the spring and back an hour in the fall is intended to maximize daylight during summer months, but has long been subject to scrutiny. Daylight saving time was first adopted as a wartime measure in 1942.
Other lawmakers propose change to daylight saving time
Other lawmakers have previously proposed getting rid of the time change altogether.
The most prominent recent attempt, a now-stalled bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, would ensure Americans would no longer have to change their clocks twice a year. And while the goal was to enact said bill by 2023, things haven’t really gone to plan.
FILE: Donald Trump. (Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
In October, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) released a statement in support of making daylight saving time permanent.
"It’s time to lock the clock and stop enduring the ridiculous and antiquated practice of switching our clocks back and forth. Let’s finally pass my Sunshine Protection Act and end the need to ‘fall back’ and ‘spring forward’ for good," he said.
Some health experts say daylight saving time could affect your health
Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it's time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time year-round aligns better with the sun — and human biology.
RELATED: Daylight saving time: How springing forward could affect your health
But until this happens, experts suggest getting to bed a little earlier in the days leading up to to daylight saving time to help gradually adjust to the time change.
"Stay active, maintain a regular exercise pattern or routine," Dr. Hitendra Patel, medical director of the Sleep Program at Wellstar Health System in Georgia, told FOX 5 Atlanta. "Try to avoid exercise late at night. Especially if a person is having difficulty sleeping, exercise earlier in the day."
Most countries do not observe daylight saving time. For those that do, the date that clocks are changed varies, creating a complicated tapestry of changing time differences. Arizona and Hawaii don’t change their clocks at all.