As you “lose” an hour of sleep tomorrow, please recall the history of this bad idea. Daylight Savings Time in the US was ushered in by Congress on March 19, 1918 with the Standard Time Act of 1918 as a temporary war measure, and, son of a gun, Daylight Savings Time was repealed by Congress in 1919, over the veto of President Wilson. Daylight Savings Time came back with World War II. From 1945-1966 local communities were left to determine whether to observe Daylight Savings Time which normally ran from April to September. Congress in 1966 made Daylight Savings Time national with the Uniform Time Act, with Daylight Savings Time running from the last Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. In response to the Energy Crisis on 1973, Congress started Daylight Savings Time in 1974 on January 6 and in 1975 on February 23. Parents were real thrilled with their kids walking to school in the dark and the start and stop dates for Daylight Savings Time went back to April and September in 1976. (I was in high school in 1974-75 and this first awakened in me the realization that most Congress Critters were no smarter than the average rock.) Congress in 2005 tinkered with Daylight Savings Time again, setting it from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November.
Proposals are now cropping up around the country to stop this semi annual folly, and I strongly support them.
“Proposals are now cropping up around the country to stop this semi annual folly, and I strongly support them.”
If they would return to year-’round Standard Time, so would I. I do not support moving permanently to Daylight Savings time. We people have been moving about it daylight and dark as early as elementary school for a long time, even with Daylight Savings in effect. Standard Time works just fine.
My good lady would like to have daylight savings time year round. She says we need daylight in the evening more than in the morning. I get up earlier, so I’m not so sure of that.
On the whole, surely it is better to keep noon on the clock closer to solar noon than later. Standard time ought to be the standard, if only for the sake of being in step with the rest of the world.
Tired of feeling lousy and out of step twice a year. No time change for me. I doubt it will go back to permanent standard time, though I think it makes more sense to keep close to solar noon. If we can get one time it will likely be Daylight Time. Sadly, because it sounds better it has a better chance. Also, with permanent return to standard time, the Northeast would get sunset times in winter that they would consider unacceptable.
I don’t have a problem with DST per se, except that it starts way too early and ends too late. If it went back to being from mid/late April through late October, like it was in the 70s and 80s, I’d be fine with it. As it stands now, we have to go through several weeks of the sun not coming up until almost 7:30 (in central Illinois) at the beginning and end of DST. It’s annoying enough going through that in the dead of winter, why go through it twice more? That said, if we had to stick with either DST or Standard Time year round I’d pick the latter, again, to avoid pitch-dark mornings for several months per year.
It’s harder on your circadian rhythm to Spring forward than to fall back but there’s an hour gain of daylight in the evening (if you maintain a schedule with the world). What I dread is Fall back when we lose an hour of evening daylight and are plunged into early evening winter darkness. I find using a head lamp and maintaining same schedule for outside chores improves my mood.
But all in all, I sleep with an eye mask, go to bed early, and wake up early without an alarm. I barely notice DST.
Just split the difference. Next spring, at 2:30 AM on whatever day it is, make it 3AM and have done with it.