The majority of North American and Europe as well as some parts of the middle east all observe daylight savings but the rest of the world does not. Why is that? You’re probably expecting some profound scientific reason as to why we have this tradition but in all honesty, there is none. There are in fact many reasons why daylight saving is bad for your health which is why many Californians are fighting to ban daylight saving in their state.

There is a long held belief that Benjamin Franklin was the originator of the idea and that it was first enacted to help farmers collect more harvest. Both of those things are false. In fact daylight saving actually hurt farmers because their days are based on the sun and not the clock so farmhands would end up actually working less for the same amount of time. The practice is in fact just an effort for people to enjoy more sunshine. We’re all for people enjoying more sunlight but not at the cost of disrupting everyone’s sleep cycle. Not that you needed studies to tell you, but sleep is very important and studies have found that having less than optimal sleep affects people in many ways. A shorter lifespan for instance, or being less alert. Some studies have even said that driving while sleep deprived is even more dangerous than driving drunk. Daylight saving messes with your natural circadian rhythm, aka your sleep cycle or internal clock. There are many cases right after daylight saving where there is a notable increase in heart attacks and car accidents. So the state of California is finally doing something about it.

California is circulating a petition that currently has over 80,000 signatures that would ban daylight saving in the state. This would follow the example of Hawaii and most of Nevada, the two states that do not practice the tradition of daylight saving. Perhaps if this resolution goes through, other states will follow suit and end this nearly 100 year old American tradition.