OT: Daylight Savings Time (this coming Sunday): change the time, or time for a change?

Yes, once again, this coming Sunday, almost all of the U.S. states will do the annual fall time change thing, switching their clocks back one hour on Saturday night.

Except this time there are those who believe that it might actually be the last time we ever do this. That's because the Sunshine Protection Act now in Congress, which, according to the article linked below,

" ... would make daylight saving time permanent year-round for all states but Hawaii and most of Arizona, which would continue to observe year-round standard time."

But the article goes on to say that

" ... the bill has stalled in the House."

Also:

"Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who introduced the act, suggested it would reduce crime, encourage kids to play outside and lower the risk of heart attacks and car accidents."

The article then goes on to state some pros and cons of keeping DST, such as

" ... a 2020 study found that fatal traffic accidents in the U.S. rose 6% in the week after daylight saving started. Other studies have found that the switch to daylight saving brings small increases in workplace injuries and medical errors in the days following the change. A 2019 study, meanwhile, found that the risk of heart attacks went up in the week after clocks sprung forward, though other research did not find such an increase."

" ... the American Academy of Sleep Medicine supports the opposite switch to permanent standard time, given research showing that our bodies function best with more sunlight in the morning."

" ... people in the U.S. lose about 19 minutes of sleep per day due to daylight saving time, which could increase their risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease."

"We really need to align to the sun ... If we want to make social changes and decide we want that extra hour [of light] at the end of the day, then maybe the work schedule should be an hour shorter."

" ... when people rise in darkness, hormones like cortisol may not be readily available, so people might feel drowsier ... Then at night, daylight saving can lead people to go to bed later, which can delay the body’s production of melatonin."

"Some people never adapt to daylight saving time, so they are predominantly so-called jet lagged for eight months of the year ... our brains are wired to receive the sun in the morning and perform activities that are consistent with our internal clock."

As for the argument that DST somehow saves energy,

"A 2011 study found that daylight saving actually COST Indiana households an extra $9 million per year in electricity bills because they spent more on heating and cooling, even though people used lights less."

But come to think about it, maybe this topic isn't so OT after all.

Because we all want to do the things that improve our health. That includes doing anything that improves, or protects, our sleep patterns. But if observing DST messes with our sleep, as some of the above comments suggest, then we need to be concerned about it, including maybe putting a stop to it.

But to end on a lighter note, here's a little DST humor to make the coming time change seem a little less burdensome:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=daylight+savings+time+cartoons+&form=qblh&sp=-1&pq=daylight+savings+time+cartoons+&sc=10-31&qs=n&sk=&cvid=6b15ea7665244317836eb9af8fb4d67e&ghsh=0&ghacc=0&ghpl=

And if you would like to express your own opinion of DST in the above survey I have included, feel free.

(Personally, my own opinion on DST is the choice that comes after all the others).

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/daylight-saving-time-ends-debate-rcna54805

Most people I know seem to prefer DST year round. Personally, I would prefer standard time year round since I would rather have an earlier sunrise than a later sunset.

BTW, it's struck me as odd that "standard" comprises only 1/3 of the year. That doesn't sound very standard to me.

Michael_T said...
Most people I know seem to prefer DST year round. Personally, I would prefer standard time year round since I would rather have an earlier sunrise than a later sunset.

BTW, it's struck me as odd that "standard" comprises only 1/3 of the year. That doesn't sound very standard to me.

I believe it's standard time (i.e., "true" or solar time) if the sun is directly overhead (in some part of the time zone) at noon. I remember being surprised as a kid the first time I saw a scene in a movie with many international time-zone clocks on the wall: a couple of the clocks were shifted by some number of whole hours plus 30 or 45 minute offsets. Some places compromise. For example, India spans two time zones, but uses only one, where the local time is five and a half hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Djin

Post Edited (DjinTonic) : 11/2/2022 11:41:28 AM (GMT-7)

old dogs barking for change. as a photographer i dislike earlier sunrises but i adapt

mattam said...
As I said, in Arizona just about the whole state stays on standard time the entire year, which is good for me. I've been hard wired most of my life for getting up at the time. I don't think I could change that if I tried. Part of the foolishness of altering the time twice a year is the difficulty in making the adjustments. Apparently, there are more accidents, sleep issues etc at those times of the year.

I’ve heard it’s an issue for some. When I was in the army I worked weird hours for a while: 3 days on swing shift followed by 3 days on midnight shift followed by 3 days on day shift then 3 days off, rinse and repeat. One just dealt with it. Then I was sent Europe for over a year where I worked 24 hours On and then 24 hours off, rinse and repeat. When I got out I worked straight midnight shifts for lots of years. I have found that, just like jet lag, after a couple days the body adjusts.

When I changed careers in the early 90s (to high school teacher) I had regular hours but I always got up hours before school time so I’d could do something for myself before doing something for others. I’d hit the gym or practice the guitar or draw or work in my darkroom and then head off to class. Now I’m retired and I still get up early, usually about 5am, and get my day going. Changing the clocks is just an unnecessary hassle.

I hate getting old....

Everyone says today our clocks go back..
but I can't remember where I bought mine !

Loved my radio as a kid, Mel. And all I know is that I just finished cleaning out the gutters on the house and garage, and it is only 11:55 a.m., but it feels like it is 12:55 p.m. already. Nap time.
Michael

Missing in much of the debate is the view of those of us who live in the frozen north. I'd much prefer to stay on Standard time year round...it makes sunrise a bit later and high noon closer to noon. Year round DST in northern states will have mid-winter sunrise at 830 or 9 am--which is miserable for the morning commute and morning school bus routes. It is interesting that most of the push for it is from those who live in the southern states.

My transitor radio was tuned to WJR and Ernie Harwell. Fell asleep like that many nights. I was looooong gone!

VinceInMT said:

"OK, how about we split the difference. Next spring, set the clocks 30 minutes forward and just leave them there."

Well by golly, there's an idea, and it might just work!

But then I realized after posting this thread that there's going to be a rather serious, probably insurmountable, problem that we're all going to have to face, even if we ever do come up someday with a plan to go on one time scheme or another and stay there permanently.

I realized what it was after the recent DST time change. Namely, there are all sorts of machines, devices, gizmos, etc., such as computers, electric clocks, phones (wall and hand-carried), microwaves, etc. in my house and cars that all automatically change their time displays when the DST date arrives. They were all factory-programmed to do this.

But if we try to stay on just one time pattern in the future, all these things won't know it, and they'll just keep on changing and changing themselves at the proper (actually now improper) times, because that's what they were programmed to do.

Yes, I suppose we could all go around and manually correct them all when this happens, but would we have to keep doing that indefinitely? And we would inevitably forget to change some things?

Almost sounds like some kind of second-rate science fiction story, where all of the machines rise up in revolt, and enslave the world. (It would be just that, in a way!)

Tyranny of the machines?

Michael_T:

Thanks for calling me out on this one.

I simply ASSUMED the devices were preprogrammed somehow, simply because I couldn't see an Internet connection for devices of mine that do change: for example, I don't see how my car clocks could be web-influenced (where would the connection be?)

Or is my thinking goofed up there?

OTOH, could something from the outside be controlling how my home computer clock keeps time? That would certainly seem plausible.

So I would like to invite some of you more technically informed IT guys here to weigh in and correct me if I'm wrong. Not being a tech person, I would be more than happy to be shown the error of my assumption, if that's what it is.

But still, one would have to make the time change on the devices that would still be changing themselves, whether the cause is from preprogramming or from something on the web.

Just one more complexity of DST!

Just to possibly add a bit of clarity to what I just posted, both Chicago (near where we live) and Pierre, South Dakota, are in the central time zone. However, our sunrise here in northeastern Illinois was at 6:38 a.m. while sunrise in Pierre, in the same central zone, was at 7:35. Quite a different order to your day, yet in the same time zone. However, if we drive to the family farm south of South Bend, Indiana, in the Eastern time zone, today's sunrise was at 7:32 a.m, basically the same as in South Dakota.

Post Edited (clocknut) : 11/12/2022 10:47:29 AM (GMT-8)