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Year-round daylight saving time sparks debate

Posted at 8:30 PM, Mar 07, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-08 04:23:26-05

It's a hot topic of discussion. Should Floridians stay on daylight saving time throughout the year? 

Daylight saving time is just around the corner and child caregivers say losing that hour of sleep can even impact their business.

RELATED: Florida Senate OKs year-round Daylight Saving Time

At the Academy for Little People in West Palm Beach, sleep is an important part of its operation.

"I still don't quite understand why we have a daylight saving time." Dianna Morrow said.

It's a day caregivers here dread every year.

"Negative change in their moods for the first two to three hours of the day and you know they become a little bit aggressive a little agitated." she said. 

Florida House Bill 1013 could change that. Dubbed the "Sunshine Protection Act," the bill would keep Florida on daylight saving time year round. But Morrow said standard time has more benefits.

"We're not thrilled to get up an hour earlier to start our day so you can imagine how the children will feel," she said. 

Over at the Sleep Lab at Delray Medical Center, the opinion is a little different.

"I hope that we do keep the daylight savings time," Lisa Andrews said. 

Andrew is the director of the program and she says longer days means more opportunities for exercise. 

But she says losing an hour of sleep can have negative impacts for children and adults.

According to a U.S study, losing one hour of sleep raised the risk of having a heart attack the following Monday by 25 percent.

"When you don't have restful full nights sleep it has a tendency to affect things like  diabetes, heart disease, propensity for a stroke," Andrews said. 

For now the bill is still in limbo, but it has sparked a lot of conversation.

"It happened my whole lifetime and it's going to happen their whole lifetime unless legislation makes a change."

The bill was sent to Governor Scott but in order for it to take effect congress would have to give its okay.