Daylight saving time should not be year-round in Washington state as proposed by the Senate.

The idea of daylight saving time was first established in 1916 to have more daylight during the summer months. This was also used in the world to save energy, especially during World War II. It was accepted in the United States in 1918, repealed in 1919, adopted again during the 1940s, and then established from 1966 up to today.

But daylight saving time has consequences on people. For more time in the sunlight, and therefore saving energy, different studies have given different answers as to whether it does this or not, but the affect size is the same, which is 1 percent. That is equal to $4 a household per year, which does not seem to be that much either way.

On top of that, there is the issue of sleep deprivation, which is made worse the day the hour is changed. Studies have found that there are more heart attacks and suicides during the Monday after daylight saving, and also employees are less productive in their jobs the week after the change as well.

Now, for the reasons above, the Senate has passed that Washington should remain in daylight saving. But more than 60 percent of the world does not do daylight saving. Also, we would be an hour behind the actual time.

Let us instead do what Arizona and Hawaii have done and stay on standard time, instead of daylight saving time.

– Ethan Wright