Most Voters — Including Parents of School-Age Children — Back Permanent Daylight Saving Time

The Senate’s move to end America’s “spring forward” and “fall back” clock-changing has wide support among voters, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico survey — even among parents with children in school.

What the numbers say

• After voters were informed that making daylight saving time permanent would result in darker mornings in exchange for extended daylight in the afternoons and end the need for Americans to change their clocks twice a year, 67 percent said they supported the Senate’s legislation while 20 percent opposed it. The numbers were similar to a survey conducted last year. 
• House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) raised concerns that parents might not like a policy that would have kids waiting in the dark for a bus to take them to school, but the survey found that parents with children under the age of 18 were no less likely than the broader population to support permanent daylight saving time.
• Voters who go to sleep before 9 p.m. (7 percent of the electorate), and those who wake up after 8 a.m. (24 percent), were slightly less likely than their counterparts who go to bed earlier and wake up later to back the Senate’s legislation, though majorities still support it.

The context

The Senate's passage of legislation to “lock the clock,” as advocates have described it, via unanimous consent surprised most on Capitol Hill. BuzzFeed News reported that Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), described as an opponent of the measure, missed his chance to object because his staff didn’t inform him the bill was coming up for a vote.

The bill’s passage had relatively high salience for a congressional action. Seven in 10 voters said they had seen, read or heard “a lot” or “some” about the vote, more than the 53 percent who heard the same about passage of an omnibus appropriations package earlier this month to fund the government through September. 

The measure’s path in the House is uncertain. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told The Washington Post the process could take months.

More numbers on sleeping habits

• Similar shares of Republicans (56 percent), Democrats and independents (54 percent each) said they get out of bed before 7 a.m., on average. Between 74 percent and 80 percent of these blocs of voters also reported an average bed time of 10 p.m. or later.
• Varying income levels brought larger gaps on wake-up times: 70 percent of voters with an annual household income north of $100,000 reported rising before 7 a.m., compared with 47 percent of those earning less than $50,000 a year and 55 percent with household incomes between $50,000 and $100,000.
• The lowest earners (79 percent) were only slightly more likely than the highest earners (73 percent) to say they go to sleep at 10 p.m. at the earliest.

The latest Morning Consult/Politico survey was conducted March 18-21, 2022, among a representative sample of 2,005 registered U.S. voters, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.