Daylight’s Idiocy
Messing with our clocks and mucking things up.
Twice a year, a savage idiocy sweeps over the land…
Time for everyone to adjust their clocks an hour!
It’s been branded “Daylight Saving Time” — yet another absurd marketing gimmick that’s taken hold of our brains with its lazy shorthand.
Why do we still do this?
Even conceding that it’s nice when it stays lighter later in the day, that’s not what’s at issue here. Because we could move the clocks one time to achieve that effect and then leave them be. (Some regions already do this; more on that later.)
At issue is the arrogant, needless disruption DST causes, and our bovine complacency about it.
Every year, articles like this one are published in newspapers and blogs decrying the nonsensical, annoying tradition.
The pathetic thing is that despite a general widespread dissatisfaction with the practice, it seems impossible to do anything about it — and we can’t even get a straight answer as to why DST exists.
So why do we do it?
A few standard answers are always offered like clockwork (sorry). It’s for the economy! It conserves energy! It’s for kids waiting for the school bus in the dark! Do you want children to die??
I recall hearing that the practice was some sort of anachronistic (heh) holdout once thought to benefit agriculture, but it turns out that farmers hate it too.
And rightly so. All the purported benefits of moving our clocks are based on bullshit.
Basically, the rationale for the idea was that it would give workers more daylight after work, which… simply takes an hour of light from the morning.
The very Germanic assumption underlying the policy is that we all clock in at the factory at the same time and clock out again together, and that all communities of people can be treated the same. But even if we did behave en masse that way (and we do not), DST doesn’t save anything, it just shifts it so that our mornings are darker and colder.
As for those supposed energy benefits, while some areas will use less energy during Daylight Saving Time, other areas end up using more (especially in subtropical areas closer to the equator, which get more daylight). And where slight savings can be detected, they’re often offset by increased use of energy for other purposes. That is to say, less electricity may be used for indoor lighting, but more energy is used for heating during those dark early morning hours.
Pretty Low on the BS Scale by 2018 Standards…
Yes, there are far more pressing concerns in the world. But while complaining about it might seem petty, DST is dangerous in its disruptiveness. It’s not an exaggeration to say that countless people have lost their lives because of this asinine habit.
Have a taste from this recent piece in Business Insider, “Daylight Saving Time Is Literally Killing Us”:
“The interruption to our internal clocks literally kills people: incidents of heart attacks, strokes, and fatal car accidents all spike around the start of Daylight Saving Time each year….
“Each year, on the Monday after the springtime switch, hospitals report a 24% spike in heart attack visits.”
One study’s title is “Daylight Savings Time and Myocardial Infraction,” which in a saner world might be enough to end the idiocy decisively.
Some research shows traffic accidents diminish during DST, overall — another argument for making that time standard year-round. But immediately following the time shift, accidents were shown to increase by up to 11% in the United Kingdom. Another study found that on the first Monday after switching to DST, workplace injuries increase in both rate and severity.
Of course performance and well-being are put at risk. Sleep is pivotal to health. You can’t just mess with people’s circadian rhythms willy-nilly without it affecting their lives. (See: “Transitions into and out of daylight saving time compromise sleep and the rest-activity cycles.”)
Till Roenneberg, a German chronobiologist, sums the consequences up nicely in this great piece in National Geographic: “The consequence of that is that the majority of the population has drastically decreased productivity, decreased quality of life, increasing susceptibility to illness, and is just plain tired.”
From that same NatGeo piece: “Economist William F. Shughart II has estimated that the simple but inconvenient act of changing America’s clocks and devices back and forth represents an annual $1.7 billion of lost opportunity cost.”
Then there are the lesser grievances. Think of parents with young children. Children thrive on routine, and babies do not care what time your clock reads. Nor do your pets, or farm animals. Shifting the entire day around can wreak havoc on a household.
Stop Hitting Yourself
So, to recap the effects of DST: automobile deaths, heart attacks, strokes, workplace accidents, economic loss, cranky kids, impertinent pets, confused farm animals, frazzled minds, missed meetings, having to change the time on the microwave, etc.
Are there any actual benefits? Might it still somehow be worth it?
The only positive spin I’ve seen is that the time shift helps retailers. People are not as likely to go shopping when they leave work and it’s already nighttime. Also, people are more likely to go outside and exercise when it stays lighter later, so it particularly helps sports-related businesses.
But again, it’s the switching itself that is dumb. Making the shift permanent would allow for the later light, without all the back-and-forth.
That’s how Saskatchewan does it, and plenty of other places. Until 2006, Indiana had some holdout counties that heroically refused to observe DST too. Arizona, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Marianas Islands also abstain. (The wise people of New England are also starting to rise up against the practice.)
In those lucky areas, Daylight Saving Time is just ignored. People go about their business while all about them lose their heads.
And does the world end there? Nah, pretty sure Hawaiians are doing A-OK.
Anyway, no matter what time we collectively decide to say it is on any given day, that day will always have the exact same amount of sunlight.
Some politician should run on ending “Daylight Saving Time.” It’s bullshit.
