Cascadia should make standard time permanent

This will be the last year residents of British Columbia will have to move their clocks forward an hour – last week, the BC government announced it will adopt permanent daylight savings time. Premier David Eby sent a letter to his colleagues on the west coast of the US urging those states to also join. Oregon and Washington should take steps to put Cascadia on the same time – but urge BC to adopt permanent standard time, which medical researchers say is better for sleep health.

Elizabeth Keys, an assistant professor of nursing at the University of British Columbia campus in Okanagan, says that eliminating the time switch is important for adolescent health, and that permanent standard time would be better than permanent daylight savings. She notes that during December in British Columbia, sunrise won't happen until 9 am.

"I think the benefit of morning light for your sleep health outweighs the benefit of additional light later on, at night," Keys said. "That daily dose of morning light is really helpful for resetting everybody's circadian rhythm."

She recently wrote about her research on how the time switch impacts adolescents in Canada for The Conversation. Keys notes that one third of adolescents in Canada already don't get enough sleep, and permanent DST will make the problem worse. She writes:

"The adoption of permanent DST raises significant concerns about social jetlag and long-term health impacts. Scientific evidence indicates that permanent DST results in a chronic mismatch between people’s daily clock-based schedules and their internal biological clock."

The American Academy of Sleep Science also favors the move to permanent standard time, observing that permanent DST "could result in circadian misalignment, which has been associated in some studies with increased cardiovascular disease risk, metabolic syndrome and other health risks." A 2014 study found a 24% increase in heart attacks in Michigan hospitals on the Monday after the daylight savings time switch.

Clearly, our region needs to join BC in ditching the switch. But Oregon and Washington should heed Keys' advice, especially considering the fragile state of adolescents' mental health. "Adolescents are already facing this perfect storm and and they're already working against their natural circadian changes and rhythm," she said. "This shift to setting the clocks later to Daylight Saving Time is not going to help."

She notes that the BC government took a survey of its residents on the time switch in 2019 and had an overwhelming response for ending it (90%) – but the survey only offered one alternative: adopting permanent daylight savings time.

"This is why it's important to conduct research and really monitor the outcomes of this change closely and rigorously," Keys said.

So, why haven't Oregon and Washington stopped shifting their clocks? Washington and Oregon both passed laws in 2019 (and Oregon again in 2025) eliminating the time change, but the Universal Time Act of 1966 requires Congress to approve any state-level changes.

Yet several states already aren't part of the system: Arizona and Hawaii both opted out of the system in 1967.

This is a fantastic opportunity for the governors of Oregon and Washington to once again assert their autonomy from the federal government.

Governors Kotek and Ferguson didn't ask the Trump administration or the feds for permission when they joined the Western States Health Alliance to set our vaccine and health policy. Oregon and Washington didn't ask the feds if they could legalize marijuana – they simply did it.

Here's a challenge for Bob Ferguson and Tina Kotek: issue executive orders enacting the will of the state legislature and eliminate the time switch. But make standard time permanent – and urge your colleague David Eby and British Columbia to join us.

As Eby said in his letter to west coast leaders:

"...our Cascadia region remains deeply integrated through tourism, trade, and transportation... We want our economies to be aligned, for travel and trade to be unhindered."

Keys notes that in places still dealing with the time switch, or if you're having trouble with sleep, one important strategy is sticking to consistent wake-up times. "For young adults and adolescents, but also for adults, what's good is keeping consistent wake up times, regardless of whether or not it's a weekday or a weekend, because that regularity is really good for your sleep health."

Keys has a teenage child, and though she does let them sleep in on weekends, tries to limit the difference to one hour. "It can be pretty hard when you know that they're tired," she says. "But sometimes you need to be thinking of benefits for the long term rather than the short term."