LANSING (WWJ) - It's time to switch to Daylight Saving Time this weekend -- when we set our clocks forward one hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday.
But if one lawmaker had his way, Michigan would eliminate the twice-annual time change.
Senator Peter Lucido has been working on legislation that would permanently put Michigan in Daylight Saving Time. He said the twice-a-year time changes are disruptive and can even cause negative health effects.
"We've learned that we have a lot of worker compensation accidents because people's sleep patterns are off and they're not 100 percent. The two weeks following the change in the clocks, children are disruptive in school -- teachers are very upset about this because children's sleep patterns need to be the same. We have also people having more strokes and heart attacks. This is documented," he said.
Rather than ending Daylight Saving Time, Lucido said it makes more sense to remain in it permanently since it's observed eight months out of the year already.
"We have to look at what the whole tradition was, which was war efforts. ... It's archaic," he said. "If we lock the clocks, set it and forget it after tonight, we will be there year round and that's the way it should be because no one wants to play with their clocks anymore."
Daylight Saving Time was instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. The passage of the Energy Policy Act in 2005 extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks — from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November.
Only two states, Hawaii and Arizona, do not participate in Daylight Saving Time.
Lucido's legislation remains under consideration by the House Commerce and Trade Committee. Similar bills have been introduced over the years but have never been approved.