It's Baaack -Daylight Savings Time!
How DST is here to mess up your life for senseless monetary gain
This past week a bipartisan group of US Senators reintroduced “The Sunshine Protection Act” to make Daylight Savings Time (DST) permanent.
I read this first thing in the morning along with their lame reasoning for resurrecting this horror.
“Supporters say the change could prevent a slight uptick in car crashes that typically occurs around time changes. They argue the measure could help businesses such as golf courses that could draw more use with more evening daylight.”
When did sunshine need protection? I suppose we’re abusing sunshine by using solar panels too.
DST will be back to torment you next Sunday, March 12.
Yes, it’s back so soon.
It wasn’t always like that. I remember…
DST began in 1966 as a national annual occurrence. It started on the last Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday in October.
You got 6 months, not 7 months of “protected sunshine”.
We also didn’t have global warming, with humans needing sunshine protection.
But, there was a historic attempt to keep DST in 1974. I’ll let The year Daylight Savings Time went too far explain:
The 7 a.m. darkness in the last days before falling back put us in mind of a historical footnote: the year of unending Daylight Saving Time.
Or at least that was how it was supposed to be.
It was 1974, and the energy crisis was cutting into the American way of life, with odd-even gas rationing, a national speed limit and shortened Nascar races. The Emergency Daylight Saving Time Act signed by President Nixon dictated that clocks would spring forward one hour on Jan. 6 — and stay that way for almost 16 months, until April 27, 1975.
By fall, the dark mornings were apparently wearing on the American people. Proclaiming “it’s for the children” — those students standing at bus stops in the predawn — lawmakers threw in the towel of gloom. Year-round DST was scrapped, and on Oct. 27, clocks fell back.
But there’s no way to stop the Earth from tilting, and — in 1974 as in all years — most of the morning daylight gain was gone within weeks.
DST messes with your health too.
Daylight Savings Time and Your Health by Northwestern Health states:
DST has also been linked to increased risk of developing certain disorders, from cognitive and mental health issues to digestive and heart diseases.
And, if you already have these conditions, DST can make them worse.
During the week after the shift to DST, research shows an associated rise in:
Cardiovascular disease, with a 24% higher risk of heart attacks
Injuries, including a 6% spike in fatal car accidents
Stroke rate, which increases by 8%
Mental health and cognitive issues, with an 11% spike in depressive episodes
Digestive and immune-related diseases, such as colitis, which increase by 3% in females over age 60
This makes sense. DST is a trauma to your system. It’s unnatural.
People lived in harmony with the earth and seasons until DST. Our bodies are in sync with the cooler, darker weather.
A recent study found that people actually semi-hibernate by sleeping an extra hour or two during the winter through natural cicada rhythms. Sounds good to me.
I recently worked a super early morning shift for my job. When DST came around I was a zombie. I already got up at an obscene hour, but minus one hour… it was horrific. It took me months to feel like a human. And I was very stupid on the job, which I couldn’t afford to be.
The Pros and Cons of Daylight Savings Time Debate say it best on why we are put through this torment.
Proponents of DST argue that longer evenings motivate people to get out of the house. The extra hour of daylight can be used for outdoor recreation like golf, soccer, baseball, running, etc. That way, DST may counteract the sedentary lifestyle of modern living.
The tourism industry profits from brighter evenings. Longer evenings give people more time to go shopping, to restaurants, or to other events, boosting the local economy.
So, in essence, your health risk for an extra hour is making people money.
I live at the shore in a tourism heavy city. I definitely know how the sun makes money. Big money!
Businesses here make their entire year’s worth of income in a few months because of one extra hour.
Each year, our summers are hotter and hotter. Global warming is adding a few degrees a year. We reach 105 degrees easily now with swampy humidity. Air conditioners are essential and pound away for months.
DST is not healthy or good for our environment. That’s my opinion. I would like to hear your opinion. I’m putting up a poll below. Please let me know what you think.
Because of the differences in DST between the UK and North America, I have to remember twice a year to remind my clients and colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic of our differing time changes. Invariably, however, we always experience people showing up late or mis-scheduling. It’s a pain!