While most of the daylight saving time-related bills in Congress have focused on locking the clocks an hour ahead of standard time, a newly introduced piece of legislation is taking half that approach.
The Daylight Act of 2026, introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) earlier this month, calls for our clocks to slide forward a half hour from where they are now, and for the twice-annual clock changes to end.
Though losing a half-hour of sleep would be less harmful than a whole hour, setting our clocks forward at all is still less desirable for our health in the long run, experts say.
“Medically, a half hour delay would be less harmful than a full hour delay of permanent daylight saving time and would have the benefit of ending the biannual change,” Dr. Karin Johnson, spokesperson for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and co-chair of the Coalition for Permanent Standard Time, told Nexstar via email.
