Musk and Ramaswamy propose eliminating time changes, in an effort that has already failed in the past

Washington () –– Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have proposed that the country stop its biannual ritual of turning clocks back and forward, and are advocating for a permanent end to time changes in a move that has garnered widespread support in the past.

In a series of posts on X last week, both businessmen called for the United States to stop changing its time zone twice a year. Musk stated that Americans want their country to “eliminate annoying daylight savings!” and Ramaswamy described the centuries-old practice as “inefficient and easy to change.”

It is unclear how seriously the two men are taking this initiative and whether they intend to prioritize this measure for their newly formed “Department of Government Efficiency,” which President-elect Donald Trump tasked with reviewing the functioning of the government and identifying and make recommendations to eliminate processes or programs considered redundant.

While other goals proposed by Musk and Ramaswamy for their department to address were criticized as unwieldy or impossible, the semiannual clock change is a tradition that has lost its appeal for many voters, polls show.

And the change, if approved, would be the most impactful recommendation released by Musk and Ramaswamy yet, affecting the way hundreds of millions of people start and end their days. It’s also an idea that some key members of the incoming Trump administration and the Republican bloc in the Senate have openly supported for years.

But some experts say the assumption that the possible elimination of daylight savings time will cause big changes is overblown.

“I think this is really an argument between morning people and night people,” said Dr. Jadrian Wooten, a university associate professor in the Department of Economics at Virginia Tech, who has studied the risks and benefits of daylight saving time.

The benefits advocated by those who prefer more light in the morning could, conversely, be true for those who prefer more light in the afternoon. For every study that shows something positive in one sense, another study may show something positive in the other.

There are three different sides in the debate. Some advocate leaving the time changes as they currently are, in which the majority of the country sets the clocks forward in March and sets them back in November. This approach attempts to balance the amount of sunlight people receive on a given day and strikes a compromise between those who prefer more sunlight in the morning and those who prefer more in the afternoon; each group gets their preference at different times of the year. It is the ideal solution.

The second position is to establish a permanent standard time and keep the clocks as they are from November to March throughout the year. This would mean that in some parts of the country sunrises and sunsets would be earlier than usual during those five months, leaving more light in the morning and less at night. This approach is supported by medical groups and professionals who say it best aligns with the body’s natural circadian rhythm.

“If we receive too much light too late at night, sleep is disturbed and, in essence, we are creating an environment for months in which we receive light at a time that is later in the day than is optimal for our health” said Dr. Adam Spira, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies the benefits of healthy sleep habits.

“We’re already a sleep-deprived society,” Spira said, “and we’re making it harder for people to get to sleep.”

This approach also resonates with parents who don’t want their children waiting for the school bus under a dark morning sky.

“These are kids getting ready to go to school,” said Wooten, the Virginia Tech economist. “These are kids getting on the bus. You know, it’s very dangerous to leave kids waiting for the bus in the morning when it’s pitch black outside, so if you have that extra time in the morning, it’s a safer morning for most people, right?”

The third group advocates for permanent daylight saving time. The Sun would rise and set later, giving people less natural light in the morning and more in the afternoon. This approach is often supported by retail, business, and restaurant groups and organizations that want people to have enough natural light after work or school to be outside and participate in the economy, and by those who argue that more light natural in the afternoon could reduce crime.

The reasons for supporting either side in this debate are as diverse as each individual’s personal life experiences; Some parents may prefer that their children not wait for the bus on a dark morning, while other parents may prefer that there be some light while they watch their children play sports after school.

While Musk and Ramaswamy said they support eliminating daylight savings time, it is unclear whether they are proposing that the country adopt permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time. Musk seemed to indicate his support for both contradictory ideas in his messages to X last week.

“It seems like people want to abolish annoying time changes!” he wrote in response to an X user who took a poll showing broad support for abolishing daylight saving time.

Hours later, he responded with an enthusiastic “Yeah!” when Florida Senator Rick Scott touted the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation he supports that would “lock the clock” and make daylight saving time the standard. That post, which said daylight saving time “has to go,” was eventually removed because it contained what Scott’s office described as a typo.

Scott, whose failed bid for Senate leadership was supported by Musk and who now serves on the Senate DOGE caucus, signed a state version of that bill when he was governor of Florida in 2018.

“Floridians are tired of changing the clock because we all want more sunshine,” Scott said in an October statement promoting the bill. “It’s time for Congress to act, pass the Sun Protection Act and lock the clock.”

Previous attempts to do so failed. Daylight saving time was first introduced during World War I to help the country’s industrial productivity during the Great War and not, as popular rumors often suggest, to give farmers more time during harvest.

Daylight saving time remained permanent for most of World War II, also for reasons related to industry and energy. During the gas crisis in the 1970s, the country tried to make daylight saving time permanent again, but public approval plummeted after complaints of children being hit by cars while waiting for the bus at night.

States are not required to change their clocks; Hawaii, most of Arizona, and some US territories in the Pacific and Caribbean do not observe daylight saving time. In 2022, the US Senate passed a law making daylight saving time the default, but the House of Representatives did not vote on it. And last year, a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced legislation that would make the change to daylight saving time permanent. Now, with the possible support of one of the richest men in the world, the country can prepare to make another change, one way or another.

Musk and Ramaswamy are expected to address Republican members of the House and Senate on Thursday afternoon, with the meeting expected to focus on the newly formed “Department of Efficiency.”