An Economist’s Proposal for Abolishing Daylight Saving Time and Reducing the Number of U.S. Time Zones

Daylight saving time

In this intriguing Quartz article, economist Allison Schrager argues that—for reasons including health, efficiency, and simplicity—the U.S. should abolish daylight saving time and reduce the number of time zones in the lower 48 states to 2 (from the present 4).

Frequent and uncoordinated time changes cause confusion, undermining economic efficiency. There’s evidence that regularly changing sleep cycles, associated with daylight saving, lowers productivity and increases heart attacks.

image by Ritchie King/Quartz

E.D.W. Lynch
E.D.W. Lynch

Writer and humor generalist on the Internet and on Facebook.