Daylight Saving Time Countdown: GA Pursues Year-Round Change

GEORGIA — Most of us aren't keen on losing an hour of sleep, and mornings will get darker again when Georgia moves clocks ahead for the start of daylight saving time in just a few days.

Georgia lawmakers and Gov. Brian Kemp tried to end the yearly back-and-forth over the time change last fall by enacting a law to keep daylight saving time permanent. But there's a hitch.

Daylight saving time in Georgia starts at 2 a.m. March 13. The practice involves moving clocks forward one hour from standard time during the spring and summer months and changing them back again in the fall. This year, daylight saving time ends on Nov. 6.

Kemp signed a bill in 2021 for Georgia to switch to daylight saving time year-round, but the law will only go into effect if Congress allows states to make daylight saving time permanent, AJC.com reported.

The basic point of daylight saving time is to make better use of natural daylight; however, not every state observes it.

Hawaii doesn't observe daylight saving time, nor do the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Most of Arizona skips the time change.

Nearly every U.S. state has introduced legislation that would make standard or daylight saving time permanent, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In the last four years, 19 states have enacted legislation or passed resolutions to allow year-round daylight saving time, if Congress were to allow the change.

Federal law allows a state to exempt itself from observing daylight saving time, but does not allow the permanent observance of daylight saving time.

Daylight saving time has been around since World War I. But it became the law of the land more than 50 years ago with the Uniform Time Act of 1966, though the exact dates — now the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November — have changed some over the years.

Proponents may argue that longer evenings motivate people to get out of the house. The extra hour of daylight can be used for outdoor recreation such as golf, soccer, baseball, running and more. It also benefits the tourism industry.

However, critics say the drawbacks outweigh the benefits. The time change can mess with our body clocks and circadian rhythms, making for some restless nights and sleepy days. It also is difficult to quantify the economic cost of the collective tiredness caused by daylight saving time, but studies have found a decrease in productivity after the spring transition.