Just over a month after clocks “reset” to standard time following the end of daylight saving time across much of the United States, President-elect Donald Trump proposed ending the practice of jumping back and forth.

In a post on TruthSocial, Trump wrote: “The Republican Party will do its best to abolish Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but powerful constituency, but that shouldn’t be the case either! Daylight saving time is inconvenient and very costly to our nation.”

While Trump’s position appeared to be supported by advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the president-elect’s son, Donald Trump Jr., appeared to take the opposite position.

The younger Trump’s position is in line with a bill passed by the Senate in 2022 that would have made daylight saving time permanent starting the following year.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions from NBC News asking whether Trump wants to abolish daylight saving time or make it permanent.

Here’s what you should know about daylight saving time and what impact a switch to full winter time would have on Illinois and the Chicago area.

What is Daylight Saving Time?

Daylight saving time is a time change that typically begins in spring and ends in fall, often referred to as “spring forward” and “fall back.”

Under the terms of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November.

On these days the clocks are either moved forward or back by one hour.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Clocks previously went forward on the first Sunday in April and remained that way until the last Sunday in October, but a change was made in part to allow children to go trick-or-treating in more daylight.

In the United States, Daylight Saving Time lasts a total of 34 weeks, lasting from early to mid-March to early November in states where it is in effect.

Some people like to credit Benjamin Franklin as the inventor of daylight saving time when he wrote in a 1784 essay about saving candles: “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” But that was more of a satire than a serious consideration.

Germany was the first country to introduce daylight saving time on May 1, 1916 during World War I to save fuel. The rest of Europe soon followed.

The United States did not introduce daylight saving time until March 19, 1918. It was unpopular and was abolished after the First World War.

On February 9, 1942, Franklin Roosevelt instituted year-round daylight saving time, which he called “War Time.” This lasted until September 30, 1945.

Daylight saving time did not become standard in the United States until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandated standard time throughout the country within established time zones. It said that clocks would be set forward one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in April and set back one hour at 2 a.m. on the last Sunday in October.

States could still opt out of Daylight Saving Time as long as the entire state did so. In the 1970s, due to the 1973 oil embargo, Congress implemented a trial period of year-round daylight saving time from January 1974 to April 1975 to save energy.

When will daylight saving time resume?

In 2025, daylight saving time will be reintroduced on March 9th and the clocks will then be set forward.

Which states observe daylight saving time?

Almost all US states observe daylight saving time, except Arizona (although some Native American tribes observe daylight saving time in their territories) and Hawaii. U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, do not observe Daylight Saving Time.

Which is better for your sleep?

According to Dr. According to James Rowley, a professor of medicine at Rush University and former president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the time change could actually do more harm than good.

The topic of summer time vs. winter time has been hotly debated, especially in recent years. Sleep experts sometimes advocate a permanent standard time. But some experts say switching to permanent daylight saving time, as some lawmakers have previously suggested, would be worse.

“Permanent standard time would basically mean that we keep what I believe to be biologically correct time all year round. And I say biologically correct because our bodies are more used to it and have evolved to keep the correct time.” “That’s been considered standard time over the years,” Rowley said in an interview with NBC Chicago. “Due to the constant summer time, the special problems arise in winter. It’s great to have an extra hour of sunlight in the evening, although I always remind people that in summer we have the same amount of sun, whether it’s daylight or winter time, but that seems like an hour later, but in winter “The sunrise is much later, and that is biologically very problematic because we need sunshine in the morning to set our circadian rhythm for the day.”

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has been pushing for a move to permanent standard time for several years.

“By causing the human internal clock to be out of sync with the natural environment, daylight saving time increases risks to our physical health, mental well-being and public safety,” says Dr. M. Adeel Rishi, chairman of the AASM Public Safety Committee and a pulmonary, sleep medicine and critical care specialist at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, said in a statement. “Permanent standard time is the optimal choice for health and safety.”

Experts cited a “growing body of evidence” in recent years.

“Permanent standard time helps synchronize the internal clock with the rising and setting of the sun,” said Dr. James A. Rowley, president of the AASM, in a press release. “This natural synchrony is optimal for healthy sleep, and sleep is essential for health, mood, performance and safety.”

It also echoes similar views from other organizations, including the National Sleep Foundation, which said: “Seasonal time changes impact sleep health and should be eliminated.”

What impact would it have on the Chicago area?

Because Illinois observes Daylight Saving Time from March to November, daylight saving time sunsets will not begin until 8:29 p.m. on June 20, which corresponds to a sunrise of 5:15 a.m., according to timeanddate.com.

If Chicago and the rest of Illinois continued to observe standard time after the change in early March, both midsummer sunrise and sunset times would be an hour earlier, with a sunrise at 4:15 a.m. and a sunset at 7:29 p.m.

Maintaining standard time would mean earlier sunsets overall, including a 6:03 p.m. sunset on March 20, as opposed to a 7:03 p.m. sunset that Chicago will experience on that day next year while observing Daylight Saving Time.