Americans weigh in on Trump’s Daylight Saving policy that would directly affect nearly every US citizen

Nearly half of Americans would support Donald Trump’s plan to abolish Daylight Saving Time, an exclusive DailyMail.com poll has revealed.

The survey by J.L Partners found that 48 percent of respondents would strongly support or somewhat support eliminating the twice-yearly changing of the clocks.

For comparison, only 19 percent said they would oppose dumping the practice, while 33 percent said they were neutral or had no opinion.

Trump has suggested he will ‘eliminate’ the practice during his second term, blasting it as ‘inconvenient, and very costly to our nation’.

Only two US states don’t observe DST: Arizona and Hawaii. Both opted out, arguing in part that their consistent sunrise and sunset times made it unnecessary.

DST was first introduced in 1918 so that there was more daylight in the evening in a bid to improve workforce productivity.

The clocks go forward by one hour at 1am the second Sunday in March and back one hour at 2am on the first Sunday in November.

But a growing body of evidence shows DST is linked to increased heart attacks and strokes, insomnia, mental health issues, suicides, car accidents and even cancer.

Losing an hour of sleep when the clocks move forward results in surges in inflammation, stress hormones and exhaustion, raising the risk of suffering from numerous health conditions.

A study that tracked hospital admissions across the state of Michigan found that those for heart attacks rose 24 percent on the Monday following the switch to DST.

And another study from Finland found the overall risk of stroke surged eight percent over the first two days after the clocks changed.

Deaths from road accidents also increase. Studies have found a six percent rise in fatal collisions following the clock change. 

There is also limited evidence that DST causes an uptick in suicidal behaviors and increased mortality in the days after shifting the clocks.

The DailyMail.com poll was conducted by J.L Partners and involved a representative sample of 1,009 Americans. 

It was carried out between January 10 and 12 this year, with voters interviewed for over 15 minutes on a range of topics after being recruited online.

Results also showed that, by age group, over-65s were most likely to support the shift, with 54 percent backing dumping DST compared to 38 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds.

By political party, 54 percent of Republicans were estimated to back the policy compared to 45 percent of Democrats.

Many find the clocks springing ahead one hour in March most disruptive, and several days to a week to adjust their sleeping schedule.

During this time, they may go to bed later and wake up earlier than usual, which causes sleep deprivation — and raises the risk of complications.

DST has also always made less sense in southern states because their sunlight is reasonably consistent all year round.

The time change was implemented nationally in the US in 1918 during the First World War as an effort to save an hour’s worth of fuel each day.

It was repealed in 1919, but then brought back in 1942 when the US entered the Second World War.

Some states and cities continued to follow it twice yearly afterward resulting in what was known as the ‘chaos of clocks’, before the Uniform Time Act was passed in 1966 standardizing DST nationwide.

Today, 48 of the 50 states in the US follow the clock change — excluding Arizona and Hawaii where sunrise and sunset are more constant throughout the year.

Globally, 61 countries and territories use DST — including the UK and many US allies in Europe.