"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 (March 8, 2022).
The idiotic seasonal time change misnamed "spring forward" in the form of "daylight saving time" will occur this Sunday, March 8 – more than 1 week before the actual (astronomical) start of spring. Thus, at 2 a.m. all local times will suddenly become 3 a.m. and every manjack loses an hour of sleep. (Especially bad if one has to work Sunday, say at a supermarket or fast food restaurant.)
I've always felt DST or 'Daylight Saving Time' was a dumb
notion. I mean you already have a natural clock cycle in standard time, based on actual Sun positions, so why mess with it? But since the U.S. labor sector and its corporate overseers generally
demand a rigid work schedule, I could see at least some minimal benefit to
family guys who couldn't get home from the office until nearly 6.30 or 7:00
p.m. and wanted some time to go out and play catch with the kids - or just take
a walk. This was generally an understandable and practical application.
(At the same time, of course, workers will have to adjust to waking up an hour
earlier for work by tomorrow - traced to increased frequency of heart attacks
owing to the disruption of the circadian rhythm.)
But then a new meme struck which hailed the benefits of DST as an
"energy saver" and my bull pocky and PR radar instantly went
off. I smelled BS through and through and now, a new book, 'Spring
Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time' '
(by Michael Downing) confirms my suspicion that there are no real energy
savings and in fact more energy waste.
In one recent local news segment, the following
hypothesis was offered by the (FOX) news anchor:
"The thinking is, with an extra hour of daylight, Americans will be
outside more, in their homes left and therefore not using as much energy."
To which one skeptic responded in a subsequent Colorado Gazette observation:
"Well they got right the first half, that Daylight Saving pushes us out
of our houses - but when Americans go the ball park or the Mall at the end of
the day, we don't walk there.
Here's the dirty secret: Daylight Saving increases gasoline consumption and
it's not a small matter. The National Association of Convenience Stores, who
sell 80 percent of our gasoline, says that the one month of extra daylight we
got recently in 2005 was worth one billion dollars to them".
That is a staggering amount of gasoline and oil consumed! Also a large amount
of carbon (almost 0.2gT) added to the atmosphere, even as we are approaching a
critical threshold (551gT) beyond which we will surpass the 2 deg. Celsius
marker - leading to recurring violent weather, extended heat waves and droughts
and new diseases entering temperate latitudes.
Who benefits then?
The writer expatiated:
"Golfers benefit because of course, golf courses are too large to
illuminate. So the golf industry days every extra month of daylight savings is
worth about four hundred million dollars in greens fees and equipment sales.
Similarly, the barbecue industry profits. Everybody associated with outdoor
recreational sports loves daylight savings."
But leave out the energy aspect, DST is just a plain calamity for the nation's health - not to mention triggering drowsiness in drivers still not adapted because their circadian rhythms haven't yet adjusted. Indeed, a recent Stanford study, see link at the bottom, noted:
"Every spring, Americans dutifully adjust their clocks forward to daylight saving time, and every fall, back to standard time — but no one seems very happy about it. The biannual time shift is not only inconvenient, it’s also known to be acutely bad for our health. The collective loss of an hour of sleep on the second Sunday in March has been linked to more heart attacks and fatal traffic accidents in the ensuing days.
Now, a study by Stanford researchers finds there are longer-term hazards and better alternatives. They compared three different time policies: permanent standard time, permanent daylight saving time and biannual shifting to see how these affected circadian rhythms and health across the country. (Circadian rhythm is the body's innate 24-hour cock which regulates physical processes). ....Indeed, by modeling light exposure, circadian impacts and health characteristics county by county, the researchers estimate that permanent standard time would prevent some 300,000 cases of stroke per year and result in 2.6 million fewer people having obesity
300, 000 strokes per year could be obviated by getting rid of DST?! Think of that. Think of the impact on medical bill savings, preserving quality of life! Think of 2.6 million fewer Americans with obesity!
Prof. Beth Ann Malow of Vanderbilt offered her own thesis (back in 2019) 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.
Is there a practical compromise that ought to at least be possible? My suggested compromise is to limit the time applicable to DST between the equinoxes, spring (Mar. 21) and fall(Sept. 22). So, instead of commencing DST Sunday at 2 a.m. the powers-that -be would have waited until the nearest Sunday to the Spring equinox - which this year would be March 20th.. Similarly, DST would end at the Sunday nearest the Autumnal equinox.
It would also stop the nonsensical early morning burning of energy (because it's still dark outside), for workers and students, once the days get shorter - as they do for temperate climes near mid-October. The net effect of these changes would knock off almost two months of DST at a significant energy savings- as well as sparing the planet from more carbon load in the atmosphere.
Don't look for our lawmakers to go along with it, though. They are more invested in putting more moola in the pockets of businesses that can exploit DST for their own ends.
See Also:
Daylight saving time increases drowsy driving risk, safety experts warn
And:Study suggests most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving time
And:
States Object to Changing the Clocks for Daylight Saving Time | Almanac.com
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