Twice a year, millions all over the United States adjust their clocks due to Daylight Saving Time (DST), an hour forward in the spring, and an hour back in the fall. This ritual has been observed around the world, but nowadays it is mostly observed in North America and Europe.

People who argue for DST generally argue that it saves energy, since people are awake more during the daylight hours, but this is heavily disputed. The main reason is because shifting the times around allows people to have more sunlight after working hours. However, this comes at a cost.

During the spring forward, which we went through last month, many people become crabby from losing a full hour of sleep. Worse than just some irritation, though, some people’s hearts are strained from the suddenly lower amount of sleeping hours. There is a proven spike of heart attacks the day after DST is implemented. Why haven’t we ditched this mostly purposeless practice yet?

We’ve been trying. Sen. Marco Rubio proposed the Sunshine Protection Act of 2023 to bring the topic back up for debate again this year, and it’s receiving bipartisan support from both sides. The bill would end the shifting of the clocks twice a year, locking the U.S. in Daylight Savings Time forever.

“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid,” Senator Rubio said. “Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done.”

However, we propose that instead of locking us into DST, we go back to Standard Time. Firstly, Standard Time is real and actually based on the sun. Noon is actually noon, except for those that live in high latitudes. Arbitrarily shifting the clocks forward an hour is a pointless move to “put more sun in people’s day,” but truthfully, there’s always the same amount of sun. Taking from the morning sun will not change that.

If DST were to be locked in, the following winter would be bad. On Dec. 21, 2023, the sun will rise at 7:26 a.m. in Melissa. If DST were to become permanent, the sun would rise at 8:26 a.m. Do we really want to make our mornings that dark every winter? Rush hour to get to work is already tricky in winter because of the weather. If we add more darkness to that, we’ll have more car crashes.

Truthfully, the biggest problem isn’t the shifting of the clock or the lack of morning sun. The fact that people are tied directly to the clock and get less sleep to work for longer is the problem. But time changing makes this problem worse, and it makes things needlessly complex. It’s time we lock the clock, America. It’s time we stop this pointless charade, and maybe get some more sleep while we’re at it.