LogGrad98
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I have long hated daylight saving time, even when I was a kid. I didn't understand why we went back to "standard" time which I felt just made the gloomy time of year more gloomy. Anyway, I think it is time to kill it off for good. I think we have had threads like this before, but it appears this is starting to gain some momentum. Here are a few articles about it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...9_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.5f0352ec4a65
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...our-state-one-of-them/?utm_term=.a8326ae1047c
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/11/health/daylight-saving-time-health-effects/
As someone who has dealt with mental health issues, every year I see the effects, which can be worse in people who deal with anxiety and clinical depression. I end up going for between 3 and 5 days with rough sleep patterns after "springing forward" each year (case in point, can't sleep tonight, writing this at 2:00 am, meeting at 6 am tomorrow, ugh). It sucks. Time to get rid of it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...9_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.5f0352ec4a65
3. It helps us conserve energy.
Congress passed the Energy Policy Act — which extended DST by a month — in 2005, ostensibly to save four more weeks’ worth of energy. “An annual rite of spring, daylight saving time is also a matter of energy conservation. By having a little more natural daylight at our disposal, we can help keep daily energy costs down for families and businesses,” Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who co-sponsored the legislation along with then-Rep. Markey, said in a 2013 statement.
But in a follow-up study on the effects of the extension, the California Energy Commission found the energy savings to be a paltry 0.18 percent at best. Other studies have indicated that people may use less of some kinds of energy, such as electric lights, but more of others. More productive daylight hours might be meant to get you off the couch and recreating outside, but they’re just as likely to lead to increased air-conditioner use if you stay home and gas guzzling if you don’t.
A study in Indiana actually found a slight increase in energy use after the entire state adopted DST (for years, only some counties followed it), costing the state’s residents about $9 million; the researchers believed that more air conditioning in the evening was largely to blame. That’s a far cry from the $7 million that Indiana state representatives had hoped residents would save in electricity costs.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...our-state-one-of-them/?utm_term=.a8326ae1047c
If you feel groggy, grumpy and tired, and (rightly) blame daylight saving time for your woes, take solace in this: You're not alone, and politicians are taking note.
Elected officials in a dozen states are currently considering legislation to opt out of changing the clocks, either by remaining permanently on daylight saving time or standard time. Standard time is in place from November to mid-March, after which time (see what we did there?) clocks move one hour ahead to daylight saving time, leaving eight months with later sunrises and sunsets.
Time can be quite a controversial issue. In 2005, then Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) suffered some political blowback after he pushed hard for the state to universally adopt daylight saving time. Opponents to daylight saving time say that it causes a major disruption to sleep and that the switch is associated with an increase in workplace accidents and other health risks.
The Uniform Act of 1966 established daylight saving time throughout the United States, but states can opt out, and two already have: Hawaii and Arizona. Here's a look at states that are considering opting out or otherwise changing how they observe time:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/11/health/daylight-saving-time-health-effects/
A 2016 study found that the overall rate for stroke was 8% higher in the two days after daylight saving time. Cancer victims were 25% more likely to have a stroke during that time, and people older than 65 were 20% more likely to have a stroke.
The Monday and Tuesday after daylight saving time in the spring have also been associated with a 10% increase in heart attacks, according to a 2012 study at the University of Alabama Birmingham.
"When we change the time by one hour, it throws a monkey wrench into our circadian process," said Christopher Barnes, an associate professor of management at the University of Washington who researches the impact of sleep deprivation, especially in the workplace.
"The following Monday, we've discovered that people have about 40 minutes less sleep. Because we're already short on sleep to begin with, the effects of even 40 minutes are noticeable."
For a paper on public health policy recommendations, Barnes cited studies that show how the annual removal of an hour has been linked to more workplace injuries, auto accidents and even hinders moral decision making. In the paper, published in the Perspective on Psychological Science, Barnes and his co-author, Christopher Drake of the Sleep Disorders and Research Center at Henry Ford Hospital, suggested that daylight saving time be eliminated. They argued that based on the results of multiple studies showing its negative effects on cognitive ability, health and the workplace, removing this occurrence from our calendar would prioritize sleep health.
Even though there aren't as many negative associations with the fall transition, when we gain an hour, Barnes said their research has shown people don't typically use the extra hour for sleep.
"Human beings aren't built for 25-hour days," he said. "It throws people off because we're working against our natural process."
As someone who has dealt with mental health issues, every year I see the effects, which can be worse in people who deal with anxiety and clinical depression. I end up going for between 3 and 5 days with rough sleep patterns after "springing forward" each year (case in point, can't sleep tonight, writing this at 2:00 am, meeting at 6 am tomorrow, ugh). It sucks. Time to get rid of it.