The Trump administration is once again considering whether to end the nation’s twice-a-year clock changes, this time with the goal of making daylight saving time permanent.

On May 21, the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a bill that would establish year-round daylight saving time in a lopsided 48-1 vote. The measure has drawn broad bipartisan interest from lawmakers who want to end the disruption caused by clock changes in spring and fall.

However, many sleep scientists caution that the plan to lock the nation into daylight saving time could have harmful consequences.

Dr. Wendy Troxel, a licensed clinical psychologist and senior behavioral scientist at RAND in Utah, told Fox News Digital that the science is being “misconstrued” in the current debate.

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“Ending the biannual clock change is something most sleep scientists and the public would welcome,” Troxel said.

“The disruption of springing forward every March is associated with real, measurable harm — spikes in car crashes, heart attacks and sleep deprivation.”

But she added that making daylight saving time permanent is “not supported by science.” Instead, Troxel said research “strongly supports” adopting permanent standard time, often called the “winter clock.”

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and other major sleep health groups have also advocated for permanent standard time, arguing that it aligns more closely with human biology.

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“Standard time is more closely aligned with human circadian biology, meaning the relationship between light, darkness and our internal clocks remains intact,” Troxel explained.

“Permanent DST simply shifts an hour of morning sunlight to the evening, and there are significant health and safety costs of that trade.”

Troxel pointed to history as a cautionary example. The U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time in the early 1970s, but the experiment was quickly abandoned.

“Within a year, the law was repealed amid public displeasure with commuting to work and school in the dark and increases in morning car crashes, and with no demonstrable impact on energy savings,” she said.

According to Troxel, morning light serves as a key anchor for the human body’s internal clock.

Under a permanent daylight saving schedule, many people would start their days before sunrise, creating a “chronic misalignment between the body’s internal clock and the external world.”

“You cannot override that biology by simply shifting external clocks forward,” she warned.

“What you get instead is a population that is effectively waking up in the middle of their biological night, every single day.”

Supporters of permanent DST argue the extra evening daylight could reduce seasonal depression, boost mood, and encourage outdoor activity after work. But Troxel countered that morning light is what truly regulates sleep and mental health.

“Morning light is crucial to regulate sleep, alertness and support mental health, and this would be sacrificed with permanent daylight saving time,” she said.

In parts of the country, such as Utah, sunrise could come as late as 9 a.m. in winter, a shift that research has linked to greater risks of depression and mood challenges.

“More evening light may feel enjoyable, in part because we equate it with lovely summer evenings, but permanent daylight saving time does not mean permanent summer,” Troxel said. “It just means we will get less morning sunlight and more evening sunlight.”

Evening light, she added, pushes circadian rhythms later, making it harder to fall asleep and wake up refreshed.

That can worsen sleep deprivation and “bedtime procrastination,” already widespread issues noted by the Institute of Medicine.

Troxel said that teenagers could be especially vulnerable.

“This is especially alarming for teenagers, a population the U.S. surgeon general has identified as being in a mental health crisis,” she noted.

A typical teen waking up at 6:30 a.m. under permanent DST, she explained, would effectively be rising at 5:30 a.m. in biological terms — “in the middle of their biological night.”

“Framing permanent DST as a fix for seasonal depression gets the science exactly backwards,” Troxel emphasized.

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