Daylight Saving Time (and it is “saving” not savings) is upon us again. It began, more than one hundred years ago, in World War One when electricity still had not come to farms, rural towns or even to many city factories. That made natural light very important to daily activities and especially to war productivity. The novel concept of Daylight Saving Time may have originated with Ben Franklin when he claimed that 64,050,000 pounds of candle wax would be saved if the idea were adopted. Folks back then thought he was joking, after all Ben Franklin was the guy who said “Beer is proof that God loves us” and the same fellow who published the pamphlet “Fart Proudly” so he may in fact have been facetious about Daylight Saving time.
There is a Native-American saying that goes, “Only a white man would cut a foot off of the top of a blanket, sew it onto the bottom of the blanket and then think he had more blanket.” Daylight Saving Time may have made sense when natural light was the only means of illumination but now it is just annoying, archaic and anachronistic.
You may not have heard, but we have this thing now called “electricity”. That’s another item we have courtesy of Ben Franklin – you remember the whole kite and key scenario from your elementary school social studies classes. Farmers today work well before and after dark with the assistance of headlights on their machinery. Offices and factories operate at all hours of the day and night with the aid of artificial light. Humans no longer get up with the sun and go to bed when it’s dark. Daylight Saving Time (“spring forward” and lose an hour of sleep then “fall back” and gain an hour) is no longer necessary. In the summer months most people get up in the light and retire to their homes in the light even without the time change. In the winter most people get up in the dark and return home from work in the dark despite having “fallen back” time wise. So why do we go through this pointless charade twice a year? Tradition? Nostalgia? Inertia? Why?
The beginning of DST commencing at 2am dates back to a time when everything and everyone depended on trains. Trains were the main means of conveyance for goods and people across the country before reliable plane service and widespread cross country trucking of merchandise were available. DST began at 2 am because no trains were scheduled to run at that hour and the time change wouldn’t mess up any train schedules. Does that matter anymore? I think we can all agree the answer is “no” so why continue to start DST at 2am all these decades later?
A Danish study published in Epidemiology suggests that this zigzag time change business is bad for our collective health. It interferes with our circadian rhythms and sleep patterns causing people to be more depressed and lethargic for up to ten weeks after the time change. A Michigan study found that the frequency of heart attacks goes up 25% on the first Monday after a time change for reasons similar to the Danish study. A New York study found that hospital admissions go up significantly right after the time change for atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeats) which can be precursors to heart attacks or at least seem like a heart attack to the person suffering from them. Donald Lloyd Jones, president of the American Heart Association, has said that scientists aren’t exactly sure why these time changes threaten our health but they are certain that the threat is real. Finnish research has shown that incidence of stroke goes up by 8% after each time change as well. Various industry groups have done their own investigations and found that time changes make no difference to energy savings or efficiencies. When it’s dark we turn on the lights regardless of what the clock says.
These time changes are bad for our health, don’t save energy, don’t improve efficiency and don’t do anything else for us either, so why are we still springing forward and falling back is the logical question. Congress is the answer. It takes an act of Congress to change DST. That hasn’t stopped Hawaii and Arizona from ignoring the change and staying on the same time all year round. Several states have enacted their own legislation to stay on the same time without the seesawing in the spring and fall if only Congress would allow it.
There is a more radical idea floating around out there for “universal time”. The saying “It’s five o’clock somewhere” would no longer be true. Currently there are twenty-four time zones which is why right now it is tomorrow somewhere in the world. Under universal time, it would be the same time all around the world so midnight would be pitch dark in one place on the globe and bright as noon on another but it would be midnight all over the planet at the same time regardless. “Daylight hours” would have a different time designation depending on where you were on the Earth similar to the current situation with seasons in the world; for example, it’s soon officially spring here and fall in Australia.
I’m not in favor of universal time but getting rid of DST seems like a no-brainer. It is no longer necessary in this world of electric lights, flexible schedules, overnight shifts and 24/7 work demands. Let’s get rid of it once and for all.