Permanent Daylight Saving Time MUST BE STOPPED! Improvement Warrior Podcast Episode #90
Hey Improvement Warriors, Jason Yun here — welcome back to the Improvement Warrior Podcast, Episode 90.
I’m a former gym owner and food-and-exercise guy who finally saw the light (literally). Since 2018 I’ve been deep in the teachings of Dr. Jack Kruse and circadian biology.
My core message never changes: your light environment is more important than food or exercise.
In this episode we’re tackling something urgent and timely — the push for Permanent Daylight Saving Time. Politicians are once again trying to lock us into dark winter mornings forever. I’ll break down exactly why this is a biological disaster, how it wrecks your mitochondria, sleep, hormones, and energy, and what we must do to stop it.
Grab your blue blockers, get some real sunlight if you can, and let’s go.
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Time Stamp and Highlights of the show
- 0:00 – 4:30 – Cold open & welcome. Jason introduces Episode 90 and the core thesis: Permanent Daylight Saving Time must be stopped.
- 4:30 – 12:00 – Quick recap of past DST episodes (especially Episode 82 “Daylight Saving Time Sucks”) and why the current political push (Sunshine Protection Act) is different and more dangerous.
- 12:00 – 22:00 – History of DST, energy-saving myths debunked, and the real biological cost of shifting clocks away from solar time.
- 22:00 – 34:00 – Deep dive into circadian biology: morning sunlight as the master zeitgeber, SCN, melatonin, cortisol, and why late winter sunrises under permanent DST create chronic misalignment (effectively permanent social jet lag).
- 34:00 – 42:00 – Health consequences: increased accidents, heart attacks, depression, cancer risk gradients across time zones, school performance, and mitochondrial dysfunction.
- 42:00 – 52:00 – Outdoor sunlight segment (shirtless, grounded). Live demonstration of proper morning light exposure and why dark mornings destroy the signal.
- 52:00 – 60:00 – Practical action steps: what individuals can do right now, how to contact legislators, better alternative (permanent Standard Time), and tie-in to full circadian lifestyle.
Call to Action From Sarah’s Substack above:
This bill is not law yet. It passed the House and it’s in the Senate now, and the Senate’s response is genuinely uncertain. The last time a version got through the Senate in 2022 it then stalled in the House and died. These things do not sail through. Which means this is exactly the window where a phone call is worth something. CBS NewsCBS News
Two minutes, here’s how:
Call your two senators. Not email, call. The Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121 and they’ll connect you. You can look up who represents you in about ten seconds.
Say this, in your own words: “I’m a constituent. I want to end the clock change too, but I’m asking the Senator to support permanent standard time, not permanent daylight time. Standard time is what the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and 20 medical organizations recommend, because it matches our biology and it doesn’t put kids at dark bus stops all winter. Please don’t lock in permanent DST.”
That’s it. You’re not against the popular part. You’re for doing the popular thing in the direction that doesn’t wreck everyone’s mornings.
In Improvement Warrior Podcast Episode 90, Jason Yun delivers a clear, biology-first warning: locking the United States into permanent Daylight Saving Time would be a public-health catastrophe.
Most people hate the twice-yearly clock changes.
That part is easy to agree on.
The dangerous part is the solution many politicians are pushing — making Daylight Saving Time permanent.
Under that system, winter sunrises in much of the country would routinely occur after 8 a.m.
Children would go to school in the dark. Commuters would drive in darkness.
The single most powerful signal for your circadian system — morning sunlight — would be delayed every single day for months.
Circadian biology does not negotiate.
Your suprachiasmatic nucleus (the master clock in the brain) is calibrated by the rising sun.
When that light arrives later, the entire hormonal cascade shifts: cortisol rises later, melatonin stays elevated longer into the morning, mitochondrial energy production suffers, and the body experiences a form of chronic social jet lag.
Research already shows higher rates of heart attacks, traffic accidents, depression, and even certain cancers on the western edges of time zones where the solar day is already delayed relative to the clock.
Permanent DST would make that misalignment national and year-round.
Jason contrasts this with permanent Standard Time — the option that keeps morning light earlier and aligns more closely with solar time.
That is the choice supported by sleep scientists and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
This episode is not just another rant about “losing an hour.” It is a call to protect the most fundamental environmental input humans have: the light of the sun at the right time of day.
Food, exercise, and supplements cannot fully compensate for a broken light environment.
Listen to Episode 90, share it widely, and contact your representatives.
The clocks should serve biology — not the other way around. Your light environment is more important than food or exercise.
