"It’s not one hour twice a year. It’s a misalignment of our biologic clocks for eight months of the year. When we talk about DST and the relationship to light we are talking about profound impacts on the biological clock, which is a structure rooted in the brain. It impacts brain functions such as sleep-wake patterns and daytime alertness,”- Beth Ann Malow, MD, Burry Chair in Cognitive Childhood Development, and professor of Neurology and Pediatrics in the Sleep Disorders Division at Vanderbilt Univ. Medical Center
"'The 'Sunshine Protection Act' doesn't provide additional daylight. While we may associate Spring with more daylight, that's a result of the natural lengthening of days, not the changing of the clock. All the new law would do is move one hour of darkness from the evening to the morning. In Fargo, ND under year round DST, sunrise on Dec. 21 would be after 9 a.m. for example." Lisa Lewis, LA Times
"We should be ending daylight saving time, not making it permanent. Mornings have been miserable for our family as we wake up in the darkness. I can’t imagine having to do this all winter. If we’re not going to move our clocks, then standard time makes more sense. Our clocks should read 12 p.m. as close to solar noon as possible.." Letter writer in Denver Post, after permanent change to DST (in U.S. Senate) was announced.
Helaine Olen is a WaPo columnist clown who scribbled (e.g. Let’s make daylight saving time permanent ) on Friday:
"It’s time, as they say on Twitter, to #locktheclock. We need to put an end to the century of back-and-forth. After we spring forward this weekend, we should make daylight saving time permanent. On Sunday, people in most areas of the country will set their clocks ahead one hour, making it so that darkness falls later in the day. (Clocks will revert, or “fall back,” on Nov. 6 — a federally enforced seasonal shift.) But making daylight saving time permanent would, almost certainly, give the people what they want — whether they say so or not."
No, No and NO! A thousand times 'NO', you dope! For my money we just need to stick with standard time, no more changing clocks back and forth- make this the last DST change. It was difficult enough for us to handle Sunday with the time change, given it screwed up our entire day's schedule. (Janice did not have her breakfast until the ridiculous time of 11:30 a.m., dinner at 9:30 p.m. - and had to stay up past midnight for the food to settle.) The only reason my schedule was more normal is because I had a fitful night's sleep on account of an ear infection - awake at 6:15 a.m., errr.....7: 15 DST)
As pointed out by Prof. Till Roennenberg, president
of the World Federation of Societies for Chronobiology:
"Most of our physiology is governed by a
circadian clock. This body clock synchronizes to sun time."
But
what if DST is thrown into the mix? Well, in DST the dark-light cycle
doesn't change but the time does. That's the core problem because it
means the body clock of circadian rhythms is thrown off. So there is a
discrepancy between your biological clock and social clock (which governs time
to get up for work, eat, sleep etc.) This then creates what those like Prof.
Roennenberg call a "social jet lag". (WSJ, 'Why Daylight Saving Times Is Bad For You',
March 5, 2020, p. A12):
"Daylight
Saving Time means that we virtually live in another time zone without changing
the day-light cycle. The problem is the misalignment. The circadian clock is
trying to optimize our physiology . Now suddenly we have to do things which are
not at the biologically appropriate time. It's a general stress of the
physiology."
Adding:
"The acute effect of daylight saving time in the
days after the change are an increased risk of heart attack and stroke, studies
show. The risk is usually in the days following the switch, and not long term,
raising questions about whether the time change is triggering heart attacks
that would happen anyway."
Prof.
Beth Ann Malow of Vanderbilt offers her own thesis that the year in and year
out switching times is bad for the brain, e.g.
https://news.vumc.org/2019/11/04/malow-daylight-saving-time-brain-impact-commentary/
She
may have a point. There is also good evidence it significantly lowers
productivity which the economists are always fretting over. Thus, a
survey conducted by the American Association of Sleep Medicine showed
that 55 % of Americans reported feeling tired after the transition
to DST. Further, "the group's health advisory says moving into and
out of DST can adversely affect sleeping and waking patterns for 5- 7
days."
Well, think about it. Whereas before the DST switch you awakened at 7:15 a.m.
to arrive at work by 8:00 a.m. that now becomes effectively a wake up time of
6:15 a.m. because the clock time is moved one hour ahead. Everything is shifted
and you're trying to catch up to the change because of it, as well as having
lost an hour of sleep - and also on successive days.
Even Olen admits that Prof. Malow makes a solid case, writing:
“Standard time is the healthy choice,” Beth Ann Malow, a sleep medicine specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, testified this week at a congressional hearing on the topic.
But people like what they like. And permanent daylight saving time has its benefits. Supporters cite studies showing that afternoon sunlight increases retail sales and that it encourages more exercise. Nor is winding back clocks fully positive — the lack of late-day sun in the fall seems to increase incidences of seasonal affective disorder.
Besides Olen even recites the litany of ill effects from DST, saving me the trouble, e.g.
"When we skip ahead to begin daylight saving time, we won’t just be “losing” an hour. Many of us will be tired and out of sorts for days as our bodies adjust. Increases in car crashes and heart attacks have been documented after the clock hop. So have declines in workplace productivity and increases in on-the-job injuries. Even the stock market is likely to take a temporary hit. If we’re going to make a change, sleep experts say that standard time should be, well, the standard. It’s not just that morning light makes us more alert, according to those who study slumber. It also synchronizes our 24-hour biological clocks."
Olen is also disingenuous with her 'people like what they like' malarkey. What she is really referring to are polls which repeatedly find that large numbers of Americans want to terminate the 'biannual switcheroo". Well, as my late brother Jerry would say, 'No shit, Sherlock!' But terminate the changes to settle on which time, DST or standard? Ah, there's the rub! But as it turns out more of us want to stick to standard time, as opposed to the abnormal, unhealthy DST.
Surveys conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in late 2019 and again in late 2021 show that two of every five (40 percent) want standard time as the norm, compared to 1 of 3 (33 percent) for DST. So in a temporal democracy the standards should have it and by 7 points. So the "people" who 'want what they want' are really those of us voting for standard time all year! This is at odds with Olen's ending blather that:
"Washington needs to acknowledge the reality of how Americans live — and sleep. It’s time to let the (late-afternoon) sunshine in. Let’s make this Sunday’s time switch our last."
Let's not! Instead we switch back to standard in the fall for good! This is given that reality is standard time all year round, not DST. But leave it to Olen in her yen for DST to cite the Sunshine Protection Act which - if enacted - "the entire country would skip ahead one more time — and stay there." It's favored by such intellectual beacons as Marco Rubio and high school dropout bimbo Lauren Boebert, e.g.
"A better solution for our health would combine
permanent standard time with increased advocacy for flexible work
schedules so that more people can work and play in a way that aligns with
their individual body rhythms."
When the U.S. Senate recently passed a bill to make daylight- saving time permanent, sleep experts became more alarmed.
Legislators picked the wrong time, they say.
Our internal clocks are connected to the sun, which aligns more closely with permanent standard time. When the clocks spring forward, our internal clocks are forced to follow society’s clock rather than the sun. DST is like permanent social jet lag....
“Day after day of eating at the wrong time, being active at the wrong time, sleeping at the wrong time, build up” into longer-term health effects, says Erin Flynn-Evans, a San Francisco-based sleep and circadian researcher
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