DETROIT – It started as a way to conserve energy and help farmers.
As we set the clocks back an hour, is Daylight Saving Time really worth it? We’re going to gain an hour of sleep, but that extra hour could come with a real cost.
Recent polls show 60% of Americans want to do away with it. Two states already have.
Read: Daylight saving time is here again, and it looks like it might stay for a while
With the clocks changing to standard time this weekend, folks have a lot opinions.
Local 4 could only find one Detroiter who was looking forward to falling back Sunday morning.
“The current system, with all its flaws, is about the best we can do,” said Dr. David Prerau.
Prerau is a Daylight Saving Time researcher who has written two books on the topic. He’s advised both Congress and the British Parliament to keep it in place.
“It’s good for public health,” Prerau said. “In addition, studies have shown that it reduces traffic accidents, it cuts crime, it reduces energy usage. So there’s a lot of benefits of Daylight Saving Time.”
He believes when people complain, they’re only thinking about the one hour change.
“They have to think about the fact that when you make that change, it affects four months in the winter. You don’t have very late sunrises. They don’t have to get up in the dark and the cold for four months in exchange for that one hour of sleep that you lose in March,” Prerau said.