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Daylight Saving Time (DST) is antiquated and widely unpopular.

Seasonal time changes disrupt sleep more for adolescents and young adults than other age groups.

Cultural supports are needed in addition to behavioral changes to improve sleep for everyone.

Twice a year, we in the West like to play a little gag on ourselves with something called Daylight Saving Time (DST), which is a seasonal adjustment to Standard Time: We fall back an hour in the fall, and we spring forward an hour in the spring. (Get it?)

Standard Time was invented in the 1840s to help trains maintain schedules in connection with the sun as they passed across vast regions. As seasons change, so too does the amount of daylight in 24 hours. In 1918, policymakers decided to account for that with a time change to help save coal for World War I.

An outdated policy that disrupts sleep

DST is widely unpopular—60 percent of the population opposes it. Senators passed a bill to jettison DST in 2022, but the House has slept on it. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has issued recommendations to end DST, citing that it coincides with rises in workplace accidents, car accidents, heart attacks, psychological stress, and sleep disorders. This is especially true when we spring forward, losing an hour.

There is evidence that car accidents, which typically happen in the evening when drivers are fatigued, occur less in the summer months because there’s more sunlight, thanks to DST. But that’s only in countries with well-designed roads, which America lacks, and that doesn’t change the fact that people’s mental and physical well-being takes a hit twice a year for an antiquated reason. This is especially true for adolescents and young adults.

Why young adults lose the most sleep

Younger generations take the brunt of seasonal time changes because of how and when they sleep.

Everyone’s sleep architecture runs in two states: non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM). NREM contains four distinct stages that gradually deepen until REM, which accounts for 20-25 percent of the cycle and is where our deepest rest and recovery occur. The cycle repeats in 90-minute intervals three to four times per night, with REM’s longest runs happening closer to when we wake up.

How much sleep we need and when we need it changes by age. Adults may need between seven and nine hours, hitting the hay earlier and waking up earlier. But adolescents need 10-11 hours, and their circadian rhythm dictates a later bedtime and much later wake time. Thus, it’s conceivable that those younger folks are losing a critical hour when we spring forward.

Conventional wisdom suggests that the quality of our sleep diminishes as we age. True, the REM phase does collapse as we age, but the elderly also nap more and don’t have the need to be rested because they’re retired, hence why the elderly complain less of fatigue and disrupted sleep.

Sleep plagues young adults and late adolescents more, particularly if we consider comorbidities, whether those are medical or psychological. Medications, like stimulants and SSRIs, contribute to disrupted sleep. DST contributes to folks missing medications because of the delay. Consider that mental illnesses among the young are on the rise. Also, consider the sleep habits of college-aged kids—drinking, late nights, unstructured schedules. These behaviors die hard in those post-grad, early adult years.

Nowadays, there’s the delayed transition to adulthood—observed as a trend of young adults (particularly men) who carry adolescent traits into their 20s. In my experience as a sleep specialist, women of all ages typically come to therapy to work on insomnia; I learn of men’s sleep issues when assessing for anxiety and depression or feeling lost. This is especially true for young men. Much of this could be biological; they are still shaking off the adolescent aspects of their circadian rhythm. But it could also be behavioral. They haven’t adopted new ways of living. They may be drinking less or only on the weekends, but they aren’t exercising or eating healthily, and they’re definitely transfixed on screens longer, playing video games, and scrolling YouTube into the wee hours.

Why Is Sleep Important?

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What helps when the clock changes

Biologically, we don’t need to rejigger our clocks to account for seasonal changes because they happen gradually, allowing our circadian rhythms to adjust naturally. To minimize the abrupt impacts of DST, try to go to bed earlier in the winter and later in the spring in the days leading up to the switch. Then, consider exercising in the a.m. and getting as much morning light as possible.

True, improving sleep does require good sleep hygiene—decreased screen time in the evenings, daytime exercise, a Mediterranean diet, and an environment that’s cool, dark, and quiet. However, the impacts of public policy cannot be understated: Culture does impact our sleep. We want 24-hour service—and in the case of emergency services, we need it. But that comes at a cost to shift workers, their families, and their social lives. DST may have roots in energy conservation, but it impedes the energy of the youngest and most vulnerable parts of our population. We can demand that Congress snooze less.

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