来源：《洛杉矶时报》
原文刊登日期：2023年3月8日
Every March, it’s the same old thing. On the second Sunday, we set the clocks forward an hour to begin daylight saving time and then spend the next few days slightly discombobulated and wondering why we still practice this odd ritual.
每年三月，都是同样的事情。第二个星期天，我们把时钟拨快一个小时，开始夏令时，然后在接下来的几天里，我们感到有点混乱，想知道为什么我们还在进行这种奇怪的仪式。
By the time the following Sunday rolls around, our disturbed schedules have adjusted and we forget about the week of missed appointments or bad sleep. At least until the first Sunday in November, when we do the same thing in reverse to return to standard time.
等到下个星期天过去，我们紊乱的日程安排已经调整好，我们就忘记了这一周的失约或睡眠不好。至少要到11月的第一个星期天才会想起夏令时带来的不便，那时我们反过来做同样的事情，调回标准时间。
Let’s do something different this year. After the time shift on Sunday, let’s not forget how ridiculous it is to follow this twice-a-year ritual, created for a purpose few remember. Let us remember this foolishness and call on elected officials to end this outdated tradition and allow Americans to stick to one time year-round.
今年我们做点不一样的事吧。在周日的时间转换之后，我们不要忘记遵循这个一年两次的仪式是多么荒谬，因为很少有人记得它的目的。让我们记住这种愚蠢，并呼吁民选官员结束这一过时的传统，美国人全年遵循一种时间。
The good news is that many of our leaders in Washington have already voted in favor of ending the clock switching. Last March, just two days after the clocks moved forward an hour, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Sunshine Protection Act authored by Sen. Marco Rubio that would have kept the U.S. on permanent daylight saving time. Who says there’s nothing that Republicans and Democrats can agree upon?
好消息是，我们在华盛顿的许多领导人已经投票赞成结束时钟切换。去年3月，就在时钟拨快一小时后的两天，美国参议院一致通过了参议员马尔科·卢比奥起草的《阳光保护法案》，该法案将使美国永久使用夏令时。谁说共和党和民主党没有什么可以达成一致的？
But the momentum was halted after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed to bring the legislation up for a vote in the House.
但在时任众议院议长南希·佩洛西未能将该法案提交众议院表决后，这一势头停止了。
Rubio reintroduced the bill last week, and Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican, is carrying the House version. Perhaps this year, with political polarization deeper than ever, new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will see the wisdom in passing this bipartisan bill.
卢比奥上周重新提交了这项法案，佛罗里达州共和党众议员弗恩·布坎南提交了众议院的版本。也许今年，在政治极化比以往任何时候都严重的情况下，新任众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡会看到通过这项两党法案的明智之处。
There’s no guarantee that all Democrats will play along, but those from states, including California, that have shown strong support for repealing the law ought to. In 2018, a majority of California voters approved Proposition 7, supporting an end to clock-switching. And at least 18 other states, including Florida, have passed resolutions or otherwise indicated the same preference.
不能保证所有民主党人都会配合，但包括加州在内的众多州应该会支持废除时钟切换。2018年，大多数加州选民批准了7号修正案，支持结束时钟切换。包括佛罗里达州在内的至少18个州已经通过了决议，或以其他方式表明了同样的倾向。
And two U.S. states long ago jettisoned the idea of daylight saving time: Arizona is the only continental U.S. state that refuses to join the time shift tradition, thus ensuring that no one outside the state knows what time it is in Phoenix. Hawaii doesn’t observe daylight saving time either, but that’s more practical because its southerly location means the length of daytime doesn’t fluctuate much from season to season.
美国有两个州很久以前就放弃了夏令时：亚利桑那州是美国大陆上唯一一个拒绝加入时移传统的州，因此确保了州外的人都不知道凤凰城的时间。夏威夷也不遵守夏令时，但这更实际，因为它位于南方，这意味着白天的长度在季节之间波动不大。
There’s a growing call to end the switch for health reasons, as moving the clock back and forth abruptly upsets our circadian cycles, and can mean bad patches of sleep after each switch. And a few studies have suggested there’s a connection between poor sleep as a result of the time change and increased traffic accidents and heart attacks.
出于健康原因，越来越多的人呼吁结束这种转换，因为来回移动时钟会突然打乱我们的生物钟，而且可能意味着每次切换后都有一段时间睡眠不好。一些研究表明，由于时间变化导致的睡眠质量差与交通事故和心脏病发作的增加之间存在联系。
The U.S. adopted uniform daylight saving time more than a half-century ago in part to conserve energy, which didn’t happen in any meaningful way. It’s a tradition whose time is up.
美国在半个多世纪前采用了统一的夏令时，部分原因是为了节约能源，但这并没有以任何有意义的方式实现。这个传统该寿终正寝了。