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| The famous clock scene from Safety Last |
It's hard for me not to take daylight saving time personally. It's not just about losing an hour of sleep. It's not even just about feeling sleep deprived for the two weeks following the shift. It's that I will feel out of sync, for lack of a better term, for the next several months or, at the very least, until the nights begin growing longer.
For much of the time the next several months, I will have trouble getting to sleep and trouble waking up of a morning. Naturally, this will result in increased anxiety for me and I believe it does exacerbate my summer seasonal affective disorder. I have to think it is because my body is getting less sunlight of a morning, when I need it to wake up, and more sunlight of an evening, when I really don't need it. To put it in more scientific terms, the clock society goes by and my body's internal circadian rhythm are in conflict. It's no wonder I feel miserable. Here I want to point out that I always get eight hours of sleep, so that's not the problem.
And, yes, I have tried to prepare myself for daylight saving time by waking up earlier in the week leading up to "springing forward." It doesn't work. I still feel miserable. I still feel out of sync. The only surefire cure for me seems to be when we fall back. This year that happens on November 1, and I am already looking forward to it. I will notice a vast improvement immediately after we "fall back."
At any rate, I didn't hate daylight saving time quite as much when we sprang forward in April and fell back in October. I didn't like it, but it seemed to be more bearable. I suspect that much of this is because sunrise falls later in March than it does in April. Tomorrow the sun won't rise until 7:31 AM. If anything would throw my body clock off, that would. Too, I think I coped better when it was only six months out of the year when I was a kid and then only seven years out of the year for much of my adult life. Eight months out of the year seems interminable. Indeed, I hate daylight saving time enough that if I owned a business, I would change the hours in accordance with daylight saving time. For instance, if we were open from 9 AM to 5 PM during Standard Time, we would be open from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM during daylight saving time.
Of course, while most people don't have quite as adverse a reaction to daylight saving time as I do, I know most people don't like it, with a few who absolutely love it. And there could well be a scientific reason for those of who do hate daylight saving time. Quite simply, it appears that Standard Time may be healthier for human beings than daylight saving time. A recent study by Stanford Medicine examined how three different policies regarding time (permanent Standard Time, permanent daylight saving time, and the biannual change we have now) could affect the circadian rhythms of human beings and hence their health. They found that the biannual change in time is actually the worst for people's health. Both permanent daylight saving time and permanent Standard Time would be better, with permanent Standard Time being the best for people's health. Beyond the Stanford Medicine study, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation and the American Medical Association all support permanent Standard Time.
Here I have t point out that Congress once tested out permanent daylight saving time. It began on the first Sunday of January 1974 as a response to the oil crisis of 1974. It quickly proved to be unpopular, particularly given children were going to school in the dark. It ended in October when the United States returned to Standard Time.
Of course, the conceit behind daylight saving time is the conservation of energy. In 1974, the Department of Transportation determined that the impact of daylight saving time on saving energy, reducing crime, and traffic safety was minimal at best. Given that the shift to daylight saving time results in an increase in heart attacks, strokes, and fatal automobile accidents, it would seem that there is no real benefit to shifting to daylight saving time.
At any rate, for much of my life I have hoped that some day daylight saving time would be repealed and we would go to permanent Standard Time. I know I would be much happier and I suspect many others would be as well. Indeed, I think all of us would be healthier.
