Early Sunday, Hoosiers mark the end of daylight saving time by changing their clocks. Here’s why we have DST, who still supports it and why medical experts believe it’s a bad practice that harms public health .

When does daylight saving time end in Indiana this year?

DST officially ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, which means you should set your clocks back an hour before you go to sleep late Saturday/early Sunday. "Fall back” means you will either gain an hour of sleep that night or get up earlier. All of Indiana, except 12 counties in the northwest and southwest, including Evansville, will be on Eastern Standard Time after the change.

Who supports DST in Indiana and why?

The primary supporters of changing the clocks in Indiana come from the business community.

“Our organization was and remains a big proponent of Indiana being on daylight saving time,” said Vanessa Green Sinders, president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce .

“By recognizing DST, Indiana business operating hours are more predictable,” she said via email. “When the state did not observe DST, Hoosier businesses often experienced confusion by customers, suppliers and business associates in other parts of the country and world. There’s no question DST positively impacts Indiana’s economy.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Braun supports year-round DST, which would eliminate changing clocks twice a year, his campaign said via email this week.

“I think most Americans would like that idea,” Braun told Newsmax in 2022.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jennifer McCormick is not so sure.

"While Jennifer is very much looking forward to the extra hour of sleep on Sunday, she hasn't heard a consensus on daylight saving time and isn't prioritizing it in the campaign,” her spokeswoman Mila Myles said via email.

The U.S. Congress would have to take action to make any changes. The office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, did not reply to an emailed message.

Doctors: DST is bad for your mental, physical health

The American Medical Association has urged the nation to not meddle with clocks.

“Don’t spring forward. Don’t fall back. Don’t even touch the clock unless the power goes out,” the association says on its website.

“The U.S. should eliminate seasonal time changes in favor of a national, fixed, year-round time,” the AMA said , and is supported by organizations including the American Academy of Cardiovascular Sleep Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians and the National Safety Council.

The AMA said changing clocks triggers more heart attacks, missed medical appointments and more emergency department visits and hospital return visits.

A 2020 Danish study found daylight saving time produced higher risks for heart attacks, injuries, mental and behavioral disorders and immune-related diseases.

Spencer Dawson, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Science at Indiana University, said DST creates a mismatch between the time on the clock and the body’s natural circadian rhythm, which lines up with the sun.

Dawson, a licensed psychologist who is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine, said forcing a time change is particularly harmful for children and adolescents. Children have to get up much earlier than they normally would and often have to stand at the bus stop in the dark, increasing the risk of motor vehicle crashes.

Adolescents already have a natural biological delay in their circadian rhythm, which makes them night owls, he said. (They’re not being rebellious, Dawson said.) Rather than allowing adolescents to wake up later, DST forces them to wake up even earlier, he said.

“If we did away with (DST), kids would be getting tired at a time that makes a lot more sense,” Dawson said.

And, he said, for Hoosiers, the impact is worse than for most others, because Indiana is at the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, which means some Indiana areas during DST experience solar noon — when the sun reaches its highest point — around 2 p.m.

How should you prepare for the time change?

Both Dawson and Dr. Drew Watters, emergency medicine physician at IU Health Bloomington , urged people to start to adjust their sleep cycle days before the clocks change, perhaps in increments of 15 or 20 minutes.

Watters also suggested “minimizing early morning obligations” for a few days after the change.

IU Health said people should be extra vigilant when driving in the dark and wear bright, reflective clothes and carry flashlights when walking in the evenings.

To help people get a good night’s rest, Watters said they should be “putting the phone away at least an hour before bedtime.”

What’s the history of daylight saving time in Indiana?

DST was first introduced in the U.S. in 1918 during World War I but abandoned after the war. DST came back during World War II, but again was abandoned upon the war’s conclusion.

By the late 1940s, the use of daylight saving time — known as fast time — had become popular in cities. Indiana was officially in the Central Time Zone, but some communities chose to follow fast time year-round, aligning themselves essentially with the Eastern Time Zone.

In 1949, the Indiana Senate quietly passed a bill that would keep the state on Central time and outlaw DST. When the bill reached the House, legislators representing cities, which generally favored fast time, battled legislators from agricultural areas, where changing the clock at all was considered "unnatural" and "unhealthy for cows.”

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a system of uniform DST throughout the country.

In 1972, Indiana adopted a model proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, in which most of Indiana remained on Eastern Standard Time year-round, while Gary and Evansville areas remain on Central time and followed daylight time in the summer.

That model remained for more than 30 years until Gov. Mitch Daniels argued the lack of DST in Indiana was harming the state’s economy. The Indiana House in 2005 passed, by the slimmest of margins, a measure to adopt DST in Indiana.

Do farmers support daylight saving time?

No.

“I don’t see what difference it makes,” said Martha Miller, director of the Monroe County Soil and Water Conservation District .

“Farmers work from sunup to sundown, regardless of what time is attached to a clock,” said Miller, who also is a local cattle farmer.

Does daylight saving time save energy?

Not really.

A 2017 analysis of 44 studies concluded that DST “saves no energy to speak of.”

Instead, Utah State University business professor William Shugart in 2007 estimated that just through the time it takes to change clocks twice a year Americans incur a lost opportunity cost of $1.7 billion annually.

The Indianapolis Star contributed to this report.