Fifty States on Sun Time
What if the clocks followed the sun, and the states followed the clocks?
Sun Standard Time, right now
The same clock all year in every zone. No changing in March, no changing in November.
Boston, New York, Miami
Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta
Denver, Phoenix, Austin
Seattle, Los Angeles, Boise
Anchorage, Honolulu
This map redraws the United States around time zones that follow the sun, with every state inside a single zone and nobody changing their clocks twice a year. Every state carries a name from the people who were living there when Europeans showed up, in their own spelling where we could find it.
It's a thought experiment. Nobody is redrawing fifty states. But the pieces are real. The clocks really have drifted away from the sun, and the research on the twice-a-year switch is not kind to it. The names were here first.
Why sun time
Noon should be when the sun is highest. Right now, in much of the country, it's an hour or more off, and the people on the western edges of time zones pay for it in sleep.
Read moreWhy stop changing the clocks
Sleep scientists have been asking for permanent standard time for years. Congress keeps voting on permanent daylight saving time instead.
Read moreWhy these names
About half the states already have Native names. We followed the same idea the rest of the way.
Read moreHow the map was drawn
Meridians, metro areas, and a few judgment calls we're happy to argue about.
Read more