THE ARISING · Longevity & Healthspan
Permanent Daylight Saving Time Would Add Billions of Dark School Commutes
Permanent daylight saving time would send American schoolchildren out the door before sunrise on more than 2 billion additional mornings each year, according to a study in Current Biology.
The work is an analysis of records, not a trial with participants. Researchers at the University of Washington took real school start times for 14 states that have approved permanent daylight saving time. They combined them with local sunrise times and counted pre-sunrise commutes under each clock system. They then examined a decade of national fatal crash records.
Across the 14 states, permanent daylight saving time would require pre-sunrise departures for most of the winter. That would add about 356 million days of pre-sunrise travel among school-aged children, compared with the current system of switching between standard time and daylight saving time.
Applying the same approach nationwide, the authors estimate more than 2 billion additional dark-morning commutes a year. This is a modelled projection, not an observed increase.
The crash records point the same way. The odds that a fatal crash involved a pedestrian were 1.77 times higher on dark mornings than on light ones. For crashes involving pedestrians aged 5 to 18, the odds were 2.22 times higher. These odds concern pedestrian involvement among fatal crashes, not the absolute probability that a particular child will be struck.
The study also frames the issue in terms of body clocks. Health, sleep and scientific organizations favor permanent standard time because it keeps solar, biological and social time better aligned, the authors write. School schedules already conflict with children's biological night, and that mismatch is linked to poor sleep and reduced cognitive and academic performance.
Official records show that the House passed H.R. 139, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, on July 14, 2026, and referred it to the Senate on July 15.
The next thing to watch is whether the Senate takes up the bill, and whether school start times enter that debate.