LYNCHBURG, Va. – Daylight saving is Sunday, March 14, and the clock continues to tick on an old debate: should it be extended?
At least 15 states, including Virginia, have introduced some sort of legislation in recent years to make daylight saving year-round.
Some Lynchburg residents 10 News spoke with Thursday don’t mind the change.
“I’m 84 years old, and I’ve been living with daylight saving time and it hasn’t changed my body,” said Roger Kelly.
Others would rather not “spring ahead.”
“I think every person that goes to church knows that they forget to go that day. They just wake up and they know church is over,” said Jannett Spearman, owner of Spearman Artisanry Boutique.
Spearman says darker days impact her business.
“Older people are more aware of their surroundings, they don’t want to fall, and my cliental is older, so I would prefer to close when it’s lighter outside.”
The time change could also affect your health, as we move the clocks up one hour and lose an hour of sleep.
“When we move them forward again, it’s kind of like changing time zones,” said George Morcom, manager of the Centra Health sleep lab, where they administer about 2,500 sleep studies a year.
Morcom says one way to help the adjustment is to stick to a regime leading up to the time change.
“Go to bed like 15 minutes earlier, get up 15 minutes earlier. And do that for the next few days.”
He adds sleep hygiene is particularly important as we see more sunlight.
“You’re naturally going to do things, probably eat later, you’re probably going to go to bed a little bit later, and so that’s going to affect the amount of sleep that you get,” said Morcom.
As for whether we’ll ever see daylight saving extended — only time will tell.