Americans could be healthier without daylight saving time, Stanford study suggests

(NEXSTAR) – If you already dread changing the clocks, a new study from sleep researchers at Stanford Medicine may have you researching a move to Hawaii or Arizona, the two states that do not observe daylight saving time.

While data has long tied daylight saving time to annual jumps in heart attacks and car crashes, for instance, the study puts the potential health consequences of the current time policy in real numbers.

Models showed that switching to permanent standard time, for instance, would result in some 2.6 million fewer people diagnosed with obesity, and roughly 300,000 fewer stroke cases annually. Permanently shifting to daylight saving time – meaning that we wouldn't turn our clocks back on Nov. 2 – would have roughly two-thirds of the same benefits, according to the study.

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