NEW ORLEANS — Daylight Saving Time has been the national standard for over 50 years and while having more daylight is beneficial, the problems caused by "springing forward" and "falling back" may be worse.
Studies in recent decades blame the time shift for a variety of problems. They say the abrupt change in sleeping schedule makes people overeat, leads to more car crashes and even raises the risk of heart attack and suicide.
So, WWL-TV set out to verify is this could be the year Louisiana does away with it.
The time change is regulated nationally by the Uniform Time Act of 1966, a bill created so states can opt out of Daylight Saving if they wanted. Both Hawaii and Arizona did that right away.
Recently, Florida passed a law for permanent Daylight Saving Time but the federal law only allows states to opt out of Daylight Saving into standard time; not the other way around. So, that Florida law can't take effect until the Uniform Time Act is amended.
California, Washington and Oregon are considering similar plans to Florida.
On Monday, March 11, President Donald Trump tweeted he would be "O.K." with getting rid of Daylight Saving Time.
Florida senator Marco Rubio has sponsored a bill called the "Sunshine Protection Act" to make that change.
Some states in the northeast think they have a work-around: They want to shift ahead into a new time zone, and then opt out of Daylight Saving, which is essentially the same thing as permanent Daylight Saving Time.
Right now, lawmakers in Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are all considering measures to opt out of Daylight Saving Time.
Last year, Kenner state representative Julie Stokes passed a measure creating a task force to investigate the change. Their findings will be discussed when the next legislative session begins in April.
So the answer is: Yes!
Not only is it possible, the effort to make the change and stop "springing forward" and "falling back" is growing like never before.