Each year, the approach of spring fills Scott Yates with a familiar sense of dread. The lengthening days and warmer weather are both signals that Yates—along with millions of U.S. residents—will soon be forced over an annual hurdle: shifting the clocks forward at the start of daylight saving time.

The impacts of this change, and the paired “falling back” of the clocks in autumn, run from mild annoyances to potentially severe consequences, including higher risk of heart attacks, fatal car crashes, and harsher judicial sentences. Yet with many business interests siding with the annual observance of daylight saving time—often incorrectly called daylight “savings” time—the pesky time change persists across most of the United States.

“It drives