Permanent Daylight Saving Time could improve mood, routine

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - One Jonesboro pediatrician believes there needs to be more consistency when it comes to time.

Dr. Brannon Treece, a pediatrician with NEA Baptist Woodsprings Clinic, said a permanent Daylight Saving Time could improve morning and nighttime routines.

“We flip back in the fall and then we spring forward in the spring,” he said. “I think it becomes difficult for children, families, everybody to try to make those transitions.”

Dr. Treece added the extra daylight in the evenings could improve moods and healthy lifestyles for families because it would motivate them to get outside more.

“Take advantage of the sunshine in the afternoons and in the evenings,” he said. “Then at the nighttime close the curtains, and when it’s time to wake up, make sure the lights are on in the house.”

Shunquetta Cunningham, a mother of five, believes the adjustment to Daylight Saving Time is doable.

“I play music or I’ll have some inspirational things going on and they know it’s a part of the routine,” she said. “I literally have a routine on the wall.”

Cunningham said adjusting to a permanent time change is the least of parents’ problems, as they may be dealing with other issues like “the darkness of going to school hungry, going to school in poverty, going to school with low education, reading attainment.”

The Sunshine Protection Act is currently waiting for a vote from the U.S. House of Representatives before it heads to President Biden’s desk.

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