While enjoying your extra hour of sleep, remember that “falling back” on Nov. 7 only guarantees a much more painful switch back in the spring.

A study in the British Medical Journal showed that our collective sleep deprivation in March contributes to a 24 percent increase in heart problems the Monday following the switch. This likely comes as little surprise to anyone who has experienced the cruel “spring forward.” Far from springing, many sludge forward through the dreaded March time change with extra helpings of caffeine. 

Daylight saving time, though, is not the enemy. Like a rotten partner we can’t quite break up with, we come clinging back to standard time when it gets cold every winter. It’s time to ditch standard time for good. Daylight saving time saves energy, stimulates the economy and reduces crime. The sun in the evening saves heat and lighting costs for our homes while giving consumers more hours of daylight to spend money. Crime is forced later into the day in order for criminals to carry out their activities in darkness. Standard time’s brighter mornings benefit only the relative few of us who wake up early enough to take advantage of it. The evening rush hour is also associated with far more accidents than the morning one, and so should be given the extra illumination.

At school, daylight saving time year round would allow us to hold sports practices later and avoid the disruption to our circadian rhythm. It’s worth turning on our headlights in the mornings to have more time to do what we love in the evenings.