I’m showing my age when I mention I’m turning into Andy Rooney, the old curmudgeon on the Sixty Minutes show on television. For you youngsters, Andy Rooney was a journalist who used to complain about everything.
More specifically, I’m thinking about WHY AM I UP AT 6
AM FOR THE FOURTH MORNING IN A ROW WHEN MY TIRED BODY COULD BE SLEEPING IN
UNTIL 7 OR 7:30?
I hate and do not understand why we must change our clocks twice a year, but particularly in the fall when we change back to standard time. It might make it a little lighter in the morning for a brief time, but I will already have been up an hour before the sun decides to join me. By the time my body adjusts to the new time, I’ll already lose that sunshine because I’ll still be asleep. So why?
To me, it falls into the same ridiculous traditions
that have no place in modern life. For example, here in the Midwest, rural schools
often begin after Labor Day because the farmers are still out in the fields and
need help with the harvest. Have you been by those fields lately and seen the
millions of dollars’ worth of computerized equipment that stands in for “help”
these days? They have huge lights that negate the darkness over the fields. When
I first began teaching, students were excused in the fall to go hunting during
hunting season. Seriously? To me, those outworn concepts sit right alongside
changing our clocks twice a year.
Why did this ridiculous concept begin? The culprit was the Standard Time Act in 1918, which attempted to maximize natural light usage. Because it was so controversial, it was repealed in 1919. Then, the time change was reinvented nationally for the 1942-1945 period of WWII. Finally, Lyndon Johnson passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, which made the time change national. Only two states, Hawaii and Arizona (minus The Navajo Nation) are exceptions to clock changing. In recent years, Congress has attempted to pass a bill ending Daylight Savings Time but they can’t agree on it. How surprising.
Since my children live in Arizona, we are two hours
apart for half the year. When the grandchildren were younger, this was really a
problem. By the time the kids were all in bed in Arizona around 8, I was
already going to bed in Illinois at 10. When I woke up at 7, it was only 5 in
Arizona. It made communication difficult since we all worked during the rest of
the day.
Now that we’ve changed our clocks once again, energy
saving is negligible since our modern lives include lots of technology,
televisions, and air conditioning. Some businesses would argue the extra hour
of light in the evening helps their tourism profits. Sadly, that hour doesn’t
last long where I live as it continues to get dark earlier after the time
switch.
But the biggest problem with changing clocks, fall or spring, is the disruption to our body clocks and circadian rhythm. Like I said, four days of waking up at 6 even though I keep adjusting my time to go to bed at night. Plenty of studies have been done attributing serious health problems to the effects of time changes. Parents with small babies must figure out how to protect their schedule from this change in time too.
I changed seven clocks yesterday, including appliances
and my car’s clock, just trying to keep up, and I’ll have to do that again in
the spring. I simply go around my house doing this, but there is a cost to our
economy to support and maintain the time change in computer systems that run
our lives. And to whom is this cost passed on? You guessed it.
My home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula is in the Central Time Zone, one mile SOUTH of the Eastern Time Zone.
ReplyDeleteWhat? A mile south? Yep. All of Michigan is in the Eastern Time Zone except for several counties (including mine) that border Wisconsin. Those mirror Wisconsin's Central Time Zone.
Folks on our lake come from both the Eastern Time Zone and Central Time Zone -- and they keep their home time. So, whenever we make plans, we need to confirm fast time/slow time.
That's hilarious, Jim. I remember when dealing with meetings at the Guppy Chapter of SinC, I always had to post which time zone we were in. But this moving back and forth is a killer for me.
ReplyDeleteOur small-town newspaper frequently published letters-to-the-editor by our local curmudgeon. Once in a while, he would write in about something he actually approved of. One of those was daylight savings time. He was in favor of it. He maintained that his garden did a lot better with the extra hour of daylight in the summer.
ReplyDeleteI knew something had to be good about it. Since I don't have a garden, I guess I can check that thought off my list.
DeleteSusan, I'm with you. End DST once and for all! That said, my kitties have adjusted to the change. Only took a few days.
ReplyDeleteObviously, cats are smart. People might be smart, but their bodies aren't so much.
DeleteLike you, I spent many years in schools. The time change caused multiple problems for the bus drivers, the families, the maintenance crew, the faculty, and the students. Having young children waiting for buses in the dark was a big controversy, but not big enough to undo the time change.
ReplyDeleteGood point. That I could go with. I remember that comment about buses in the dark. But still, we have DST.
DeleteI'm so on board with this, Susan. For now... COFFEE ( ;
ReplyDeleteGood point, Pamela. I was up at 6 again this morning!
DeleteSinging my song. I have always said I don’t care which time we stay on, just pick one and let’s get on with it.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Kait...just pick one.
DeleteBecause we still have people who work outside and are reliant on the sun. It's lighter earlier now and most workman keep early hours, working often from 7 am until 3-4 pm. Nothing like having a work crew stand around waiting for light, all the while on the payroll. Being able to see is a safety issue, too. They need to work and keep on schedule.
ReplyDeleteI used to have more problems with it than I do now. Then, I had schedules to keep, my own and my kids. Now, I awake or sleep whenever I want.
I can understand that, Elaine. I imagine there are 6 of one, half a dozen of other thoughts about for and against.
DeleteIt's annoying but a fact of life. Arizona is so confusing. I emailed the Book Passage before an event to determine how Arizona time translated into eastern time. They were very understanding.
ReplyDeleteI only have to think about it twice a year. Now that we are on Standard Time, it's only an hour different. I heave a sigh of relief.
Delete