Exclusive — Rep. Morgan Griffith on Bill to Make Daylight Savings Permanent: Switching Time 'Bad for Your Health'

Switching the clocks twice a year is “bad for your health,” Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) said, discussing his support for the Sunshine Protection Act which would make daylight savings permanent.

Speaking on Breitbart News Daily, Griffith described it as a “good bill.”

“Let me explain. It is bad for health. It is bad for your health to switch back and forth twice a year, so you got to pick one. And for over a decade in Congress, we’ve been fighting over whether it would be daylight savings time or standard time. Question is, do you want more light in the early morning at 5 a.m., or do you want more light in the evening at 8 p.m. And you could pick either one,” he said, noting that he has always told his constituents that he would vote for either option.

“Well, we got the bill on daylight savings time to make it permanent. That makes one permanent. I voted for it. If the consensus was to go with standard, that would be fine. But I think after people adjust, and there’s going to be an adjustment period. But after people adjust, most people prefer daylight savings time having more time in the evening than at 5:00 a.m. in the morning, and so that’s what — that’s the one we went with,” he said, describing it as a “coin flip” for him personally.

“But you’ve got to make a decision, and that’s what we do in Congress. I know that we don’t like to very often, so we had to make a decision. You’re right. Half the people can be upset, but I’d say give it a couple years. Don’t panic in the first year. The schools will be able to adjust their schedules. They probably ought to be thinking about it now, so the kids aren’t, you know, getting on the bus in the dark. That kind of thing,” he said, acknowledging the adjustment period.

However, when it comes to health, Griffith is not talking about loss of sleep.

“It’s the shifting of the entire rhythm, and what we found, and the science backs this up. And but there are arguments that standard might be a little bit better even than daylight savings time. But what we found is that there’s an increase — particularly with older citizens — there’s an increase in heart attacks and strokes immediately after the time change,” he said.

“And it’s a it’s a statistical number. It’s not you know, huge. Everybody doesn’t have a heart attack is over the age of 65, but the numbers go up significantly enough,” the Virginia lawmaker continued, explaining that it puts “stress on the body because the rhythm of the entire body clock gets changed.”

“That’s where the health problem comes in. The loss of sleep obviously is not good, but you’re right. That part is just the same as you know, staying up too late casting votes on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, or watching that extra Netflix show, or the football game,” he said, emphasizing that the health argument is more about the circadian rhythm that gets adjusted twice a year “that appears to cause health problems.”

“The bottom line is the data shows us that there is a health concern for particularly the older citizens where there are more heart attacks and strokes during that time period,” he said.

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