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Doing Away With Daylight Saving Time?

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A week from Sunday, we'll change our clocks again for daylight saving time.

As CBS2's Tony Aiello reports, it's a twice yearly ritual that some want to rethink.

Springing forward and falling back can throw off your circadian rhythms and leave you feeling off.

"Very weird, that's all, and I have no idea way," one man told Aiello.

Setting clocks back an hour on November 5th can also increase risk on the roads.

That's why the city is stepping up enforcement and education as it approaches. It's part of the Vision Zero effort to reduce traffic deaths and injuries.

"Early onset of darkness in the fall and the winter months is highly correlated with an increase in traffic injuries and fatalities," NYPD Chief Thomas Chan said.

When daylight saving time ends, Manhattan will see the sun set over New Jersey as early as 4:38 p.m. during the first week of December, which is kind of depressing for many.

"Because then it feels like 9-o-clock at night, and then you get tired," one man said.

"It totally throws me off. I feel like everyone is thrown off. Everyone is tired earlier, grump earlier, hungry earlier," a woman added. "Not a fan."

In Massachusetts, a special commission is looking into options, including having the state leave the Eastern Time Zone and move an hour ahead into the Atlantic Time Zone.

But there's a strong feeling in the state.

"It sounds great if every state was on board, but one state can't do it without everybody else," said one woman.

So far, similar proposals in neighboring Maine and New Hampshire have failed.

In New York, a bill to end daylight saving time is perpetually stuck in committee. So for now, we're stuck with springing forward and falling back.

Surveys show Americans are increasingly "ticked off" over daylight saving time. Only 33 percent think it serves a purpose, which is down from 47 percent five years ago.

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