March 8 could have been the last time you needed to change your clock because of daylight saving time.
State Rep. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, introduced a bill in the Michigan House of Representatives that could eliminate daylight saving time in Michigan.
“I’ve always thought that the spring and the fall and the changing of the clocks is sort of a silly and not necessary dance,” Irwin said. “I looked in to the issue a little more and I found out the initial reason that we started this policy — which was to save energy — no longer holds true.”
Irwin said daylight saving time does not save energy anymore.
“There (is) also a ton of research that shows that this change in the clock affects people in a number of negative ways,” Irwin said.
According to an article published in 2009 in the Journal of Applied Psychology, there are 3.6 percent more injuries on the Monday following the daylight saving time switch than other days.
In a different article published on the scientific news website ScienceDaily, there is a 10 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack during the days following the clock switch.
“I understand it’s for electricity, but research has said that it has probably made it to where we are using more electricity than usual,” applied engineering senior Nedal Beny-Arid said.
Beny-Arid said switching the clocks has complicated some of her days.
“I’ve been late to class and then it happens at a very inconvenient time,” Beny-Arid said. “Last year I think it happened around midterms.”
Eliminating daylight saving time has been a trend some states have followed for the past years.
On March 11, the Alaskan House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban the time switch from their state.
Hawaii and Arizona have already rejected the switch — participating in daylight saving time is not required by the federal government.
Irwin recognized that one of the challenges his bill faces is that no other state in the Great Lakes region has shifted to a non-changing time.
“Even though 75 percent of the world population doesn’t do this dance with the clocks, all the states around us do,” Irwin said. “I think that something we need to consider is how can we (not only) be leaders in the region, but really bring other states and (our) Canadian neighbors along with us?”
Irwin claimed he only reason Michigan is still participating in daylight saving time is because neighboring states are also doing it.
“My mom always said, ‘If the neighbor jumps off the bridge, would you jump off the bridge too?’” Irwin said. “No, of course not.”
