For children in the 48 states that observe daylight saving time, the second Sunday in March may feel like cause to celebrate. Bumping the clocks up an hour provides an immediate extra hour of daylight and kicks off the start of warmer weather and increasingly longer days.
But health experts warn that, especially in the short term, the sudden leap forward by an hour can disrupt students鈥� sleep patterns, many of which are already compromised.
鈥淪leep deprivation in kids is a huge issue,鈥� said Lynn Nelson, president-elect of the National Association of School Nurses. 鈥淎round 35 percent of our school-age kids don鈥檛 get enough sleep. And there are well-documented impacts this has on physical health, mental health, and academic success.鈥�
And daylight saving time makes sleep deprivation worse, say health experts. That鈥檚 why advocacy groups such as the , supported by , are pushing for an end to the practice.
Here鈥檚 a glimpse at which students are most likely to be adversely affected come Monday morning, plus a look at shifting attitudes around the hundred-year-old practice.
How daylight saving time came to be, and what Trump says about it
The United States adopted daylight saving time in 1918 during World War I to conserve electricity, according to . After the war ended, it was applied inconsistently until 1966, when the Uniform Time Act passed, standardizing the practice nationwide.
Today, with the exception of Arizona and Hawaii, all states continue to observe it, starting the second Sunday in March and ending on the first Sunday in November, when residents turn their clocks back an hour. Over the years, numerous critics of the practice have attempted to put a stop to the twice-a-year changing of the clocks.
In December, then President-elect Donald Trump called to daylight saving time, referring to it as costly and inconvenient. But on Thursday, he indicated that he likely wouldn鈥檛 move forward with plans to the practice, citing insufficient public interest in making the change.
鈥淚 assumed people would like to have more light later,鈥� Trump told reporters. 鈥淏ut some people want to have more light earlier because they don鈥檛 want to take their kids to school in the dark.鈥�
Just a couple days before, Trump鈥檚 close adviser Elon Musk had posted on asking, 鈥淚f daylight savings time change is canceled, do you prefer an hour earlier or later?鈥� The poll received 1.3 million responses. Incidentally, votes for 鈥渁n hour later鈥� won by a moderate margin: 58.1 percent versus 41.9 percent.
Who鈥檚 most at risk for sleep deprivation?
Daylight saving time is akin to setting our body鈥檚 natural 24-hour ahead by an hour. It should come as no surprise, then, that many people will feel less alert in the morning immediately after the clocks shift ahead.
That鈥檚 bad news for adolescents, 80 percent of whom don鈥檛 get enough sleep on any given night, according to a 2024 poll from the . In that same poll, nearly three-quarters of teens surveyed reported that insufficient sleep had a negative effect on their emotional well-being. Multiple studies bear this out.
A on adolescents, sleep habits, and mental health revealed a direct link between poor sleep habits and an increase in mental health issues. Specifically, poor sleep habits increased the likelihood of mental health diagnoses, symptom severity, suicide risk, and negative school experience.
Many critics of daylight saving time also want to see school start later for adolescents, an idea that has received vocal support from health experts. In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement recommending that school districts push start times of middle and high schools to 8:30 a.m. or later to help adolescents achieve the recommended eight-and-a-half to 10 hours of sleep per night.
Despite the push for change, most teens continue to start school before their internal clocks tell them it鈥檚 time to wake up.
鈥淲e know adolescents are sleep-deprived and that their body rhythms already struggle to match the natural circadian rhythms,鈥� said George Theoharis, a professor in the teaching and leadership department at Syracuse University. 鈥淚f we are serious about addressing that, changing high school start times would be an important step. 鈥� But in most places we have stuck with the outdated idea that high school starts early.鈥�
Theoharis notes that teens aren鈥檛 the only students likely to struggle with getting enough sleep.
Sleep deprivation, he said, 鈥渋s an ongoing challenge and struggle, particularly with families that are either in turmoil or families that are really facing significant economic challenges that disrupt their routines and lives.鈥�
A 2023 examining sleep health disparities among children found a link between poverty and poor sleep health in young children. Notably, these researchers observed that consistently healthy sleep patterns drive children鈥檚 cognitive development.
What schools should expect the day after clocks 鈥榮pring forward鈥�
Most schools across the country will open Monday with students鈥攁nd even staff鈥攖ired from the loss of an hour of sleep.
Theoharis suggests easing students, who may be less alert than usual, into the school week. 鈥淚t would probably be a good time to try out some fun, engaging lessons and reduce homework,鈥� he said.
School nurses might also see an uptick in student visits to the health room.
鈥淲e often have kids come in and just not feel well, who need to lie down for a little while,鈥� said Nelson, from the National Association of School Nurses. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 often related to a lack of sleep the night before.鈥�
