Living in Sync with the Sun

Laura M. Argys, Susan L. Averett and Muzhe Yang

American Journal of Health Economics, 2026, vol. 12, issue 3, 486 - 529

Abstract: The potential adoption of permanent daylight saving time in the United States has reinvigorated research examining the impact of circadian misalignment on well-being. We conduct the first study that examines the effect of chronic circadian misalignment on mental health in the United States. Our study utilizes plausibly exogenous variations in circadian misalignment, which persist as long as time zones are used to standardize local time. In fact, this misalignment is worsened by the current time-zone borders that uniformly shift westward from the optimal designs. Using the latest causal machine-learning technique, we overcome the limitations of conventional methods (such as ordinary least squares and regression discontinuity) that arise in our empirical setting and obtain robust findings of adverse mental health impacts, likely driven by sleep deprivation. Our results also emphasize the potential benefit of adopting flexible work schedules in mitigating the health risks associated with circadian misalignment.

Date: 2026
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