Permanent DST would result in more than two billion pre-sunrise commutes for schoolchildren every year. Credit: Ben Peterson via Getty Images

Daylight Saving Time (DST) has always been contentious . In the United States, the debate resurfaces almost as regularly as everyone shifts their clocks backwards in the fall and forward in the spring. Earlier this year, the U.S. House of Representatives even passed a bill called the “ Sunshine Protection Act ” to make DST permanent. However, the legislation hasn’t progressed much further since July, and we are mere days away from falling back.

That’s for the best, according to a team of biologists at the University of Washington, Seattle (UW).…