Every year, we lose an hour to daylight savings just to add an hour of light to the end of our day. The Sunshine Protection Act sitting on Gov. Rick Scott’s desk would relieve the burden of changing sleep schedules and save money on lighting.

If the governor passed the bill, it would have to make its way to Congress because federal law does not allow states to opt out of standard time. Arizona, Hawaii and the US territories don’t have this stipulation because when the time change comes they are still within standard time. Florida would have to change their time zone completely to make the change.

No one should be allowed to change everyone’s lives so drastically. America has been following this pattern for 100 years; the first time being on March 19, 1918. We’re used to it, and we rely on it.  In the fall, we are grateful for the return of our missing hour.

Staying in sync with the rest of our time zone is essential to the daily lives of anyone who commutes over state lines and conducts business out-of-state. So, yes, it should take an act of Congress to mark the end of something so embedded into society. It might take you a week to get over that missing hour, but to never get it back like the rest of the nation, we’d be downright enraged.

Thankfully, there’s not much of a chance for us to see the Sunshine Protection Act going anywhere. It would shake up too many lives come Nov. 4.

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