Daylight Savings Time

Tonight we here in the United States (except for a few select counties in Indiana) will move our clocks an hour forward as Daylight Savings Time goes into effect. Daylight Savings time has been the law of the land for the majority of my life. Even so, I still detest it.It takes me weeks to adjust to it. In fact, for the first few weeks of Daylight Savings Time, I often find myself feeling sleep deprived.

In theory, Daylight Savings Time is supposed to save energy. I have always tended to doubt this myself. True, according to the clock it stays light later of an evening, but then, according to the clock, it also stays dark later of a morning. That means that the electricity one saves by turning on their lights later of an evening is pretty much spent by turning them on earlier of a morning. It's like my boss says, "It's like cutting off one end of a blanket and sewing it to the other in an effort to make it longer."

This brings me to another point. Discounting solar batteries, it is impossible to save daylight. Regardless of what time clocks here in the United States say, there is going to be the same amount of daylight on April 4 regardless of whether Daylight Savings Time is in effect or not.

Beyond the possiblity that Daylight Savings Time probably doesn't result in much energy saved, the fact that many of us are sleep deprived after switching to Daylight Savings Time, and sheer impossibility of actually saving daylight, there is the sheer fact that, according to the clock, nightfall occurs later. Even though Daylight Savings Time has been around since I was a child, it just seems unnatural to me for the sun to be setting at 8:00 PM.

Anyhow, to me Daylight Savings Time hardly seems worth it. I very seriously doubt it saves much energy. Even if some energy is saved, it seems to me that the lost productivity due to sleep deprived people whose bodies have not yet adjusted to Daylight Savings Time would cost employers more than the energy supposedly saved by Daylight Savings Time. Anyhow, I am all for its repeal. Immediately.