By the time you read this, we’ll be a few days into daylight saving time, and your body might finally be shaking off the effect of your lost hour of sleep Sunday morning.

Maybe.

You might have felt a little groggy on Sunday; maybe you were in bit of a foul mood. Some experts have compared that daylight saving time hangover to a case of jet lag.

But a temporary bout of grouchiness and grogginess may be the least of our health worries connected to our increasingly ridiculous twice-annual ritual of changing the clocks. It’s a practice that was dubious to begin with, and there’s no reason now for it to continue. Experts increasingly recommend that we cast our lot with standard time, and we’ll get into the reasons for that later. But the main thing is to get rid of the time switch.

Americans have been turning back the clock since 1918, when Congress passed the Standard Time Act to establish federal oversight of time zones. One of the arguments back then was that daylight saving time would save energy, but some studies have found that any savings from extended daylight are offset by the need for extra air conditioning. (It is not true, as some believe, that daylight saving time was created for the benefit of farmers; in fact, the agriculture industry lobbied against daylight saving time as early as 1919. In the memorable words of a “Last Week Tonight” segment on daylight saving time, “Cows don’t care what time it is, because they’re cows.”)

Your body, though, cares about the time switch. Evidence increasingly links the switch — especially the “spring ahead” move to daylight saving time — to health consequences, including an increase in heart attacks, strokes, mood disturbances, hospital admissions and car crashes.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, has reintroduced his Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent. (Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon backs the bill, which could be the only area of agreement between Rubio and Wyden, a Democrat.) The bill, which Rubio has introduced before, at least would eliminate the time switch, so it gets that part right.

But sleep experts recommend a permanent move to standard time; they argue that standard time (with its brighter mornings) is more naturally aligned with the progression of the sun, and therefore with the body’s natural clock. In a nation that struggles with sleep disorders, that’s not a small deal.

Alert readers may recall that the Oregon Legislature took action on this in 2019: Lawmakers approved a bill that would allow the state to end the time change once the federal government allows states to observe daylight saving time year-round — but only if Washington and California follow suit. So this was a step forward, but — as you probably noticed — you still had to spring ahead this past Sunday. Only the federal government can free you from this twice-annual tyranny.

It’s long past time to end this nonsense. Let’s move to standard time year-round. Cows won’t care, but your body will — if only because you won’t have to remember ever again how to change the time on your microwave.