Massachusetts may say goodbye to daylight saving time

Under Eastern Standard Time, Bostonians have grown used to setting their clocks back in the winter to darker evenings, and jumping an hour ahead of schedule in the spring — but this time-hopping method may be coming to an end soon.

Massachusetts officials have been considering changing time zones to Atlantic Time, thus eliminating daylight savings and making it a little lighter during winter afternoons.

The Special Commission on the Commonwealth’s Time Zone, a commission designated to studying how Massachusetts would go about switching zones, published their final report Wednesday. It found many benefits to ridding Massachusetts of daylight savings time including a reduction in crime, energy usage, work-related injuries and traffic fatalities, as well as an increase in economic development.

Despite several drawbacks to switching to Atlantic Time enumerated in the report, such as complications in interstate travel, broadcasting and school start-times, the commission ultimately decided the benefits won-out, according to the report.

“If Massachusetts does move to the Atlantic Time Zone and opts out of DST, then the Commonwealth would be an hour ahead of the rest of the East coast for roughly four months each year,” the report stated.

Tom Emswiler, a public health advocate and member of the commission, said he wrote an op-ed for The Boston Globe that ultimately led to people considering changing time zones. This then turned into a “by request” petition through his local senator.

The commission has now voted in favor of the potential bill, but agreed it should not go into effect unless the other New England states, like Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island, also agree to eliminate daylight savings.

“We would see fewer heart attacks, fewer car accidents and fewer workplace accidents,” Emswiler said. “On sleepy Monday, which is the day after we spring forward in March, people who work at computers are more likely to surf websites unrelated to their job because they’re too tired to concentrate.”

Emswiler said he is not sure when, or if, the bill will be passed, but he is hopeful it will happen soon.

“We have to pass the bill, we have to coordinate with other states, and then ultimately it’s the federal government that has the decision power because the U.S. Department of Transportation controls time zones,” Emswiler said. “We could get together with five other states and go to the federal government and the federal government says ‘you know, we don’t want this to happen,’ and that would be the end…because they’re the decider.”

Various Boston professors found there would be multiple benefits and drawbacks to eliminating daylight savings.

More light in the evenings could reduce power usage, Stefano Basagni, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University, wrote in an email.

“Lighter evenings would push power consumption from street/public lighting and private households at a later hour, thus imposing less power,” Basagni wrote. “Energy savings and reduction in accidents and crime could be remarkable.”

Surjit Tinaikar, a professor of accounting at the University of Massachusetts Boston, wrote in an email many night-time industries like restaurants, television programming and sports events, would be harmed by the change.

Fred Davis, an associate dean of Faculty Affairs, Diversity and Inclusion and a biology professor at Northeastern University, wrote in an email switching time zones may cause Massachusetts residents to lose sleep.

“If our ‘body time’ (circadian rhythms) track the light/dark cycle, we will tend to wake up later and go to bed later during the winter,” Davis wrote. “But because we still have to go to work, at the same time, we might get a little less sleep every day.”

Davis wrote sleep loss could greatly impact residents’ everyday lives, causing them to feel disoriented.

“Each time change causes a brief misalignment between body time and social time, like shift work or jet lag,” Davis wrote. “In the spring, this is more likely to result in sleep loss, which can lead to accidents [and] lower productivity.”

Residents of Boston said there are both benefits and drawbacks to the elimination of daylight savings.

Van McLaughlin, 27, of Allston, said he thinks changing to Atlantic Time is a good idea.

“It would make us not have to change the clocks at any point so it’d make everything easier in that aspect,” McLaughlin said. “And I think daylight savings is, in a way, sort of dated, and we don’t really have a need for it anymore.”

Jon Williams, 50, of Back Bay, said every New England state would have to participate in the elimination of daylight savings in order for it to work in Massachusetts.

“If Massachusetts does it alone it doesn’t really make sense,” Williams said. “We’re too small. I work in biotech and there are products that literally only have 24-hour expiry and so time zones are always an issue to make sure you get products there on time in their time zone. All that becomes more complicated if we’re sticking out like sore thumbs.”

Bethany Yates, 27, of Jamaica Plain, said eliminating daylight savings would be very beneficial to her.

“When I go to work, it’s dark, when I come out of work, it’s dark,” Yates said. “I never get to see the light of day. It would be nice to go out and have more time and light.”