Should America Stop Changing Its Clocks?

[erpowers]

Why can we not just leave the time as it is and just adjust to the changing hours of the day? I would not mind if the time was left as Daylight Saving Time and then not changed again. I do like the idea of having more time in the evening to do things.

[Chan790]

1. Yes!!

Please let's kill DST.

I'm also a supporter of the far more radical proposal to switch to a Universal Standard Time (i.e. 10:00 in NYC is 10:00 everywhere, 14:37 (currently 2:37pm) in Beirut is 14:37 in Moscow is 14:37 in London, UK and London, Ontario.) We'd no longer need an international date line because we'd all be at the same time on the same day. If we, at the same time, truncated the last hour of the day, we could eliminate leap-years too.

But, yes, let's start with killing DST.

[Blues Heron]

4. This is already in use in weather forecasting

Forecasts are labeled in UTC (aka GMT)

[treestar]

11. that would be interesting

different areas would have different ideas about 10:00 - for some countries it would be daylight and others night. For some dinner time and for others bedtime. Maybe it would be better to have the differentiation on that side rather than have the actual time be different.

[FLPanhandle]

14. We would all celebrate the New Years at the same moment

Some when the sun was just coming up, some when it was going down, some at the old midnight.

I can't see people adapting to this. Hell, the US can't adapt to the metric system.

[djean111]

53. The OP is talking about the spring forward, fall back thing, not time zones. n/t

[Chan790]

86. FLPanhandle was responding to me...and I said I also favored a switch to a UTC. n/t

[Kip Humphrey]

31. Not a fan of UST (time IS relative after all!) but would love to see DST disappear. At least erase

GWB's footprints on all of our lives and role back the changes he made to DST.

[SheilaT]

77. Having the entire planet on one time zone is the dumbest idea I've heard in a long time.

So you work from 8am, but where you are that 8am used to be 3am. You'll go to work in the middle of the actual night, get off in the middle of the actual morning. You really think you're going to go to bed and get a good amount of sleep if you have to do that when it's several hours before nightfall?

People are reasonable tuned to the light and dark rhythm of the natural day. DST is a one hour shift, and I happen to like it, I just wish DST didn't start quite so early or end so late.

[Chan790]

84. Well, technically no.

If you used to go to work at 8am EST and get out at 4pm EST...you'd probably continue going to work at the same time of day as it always was, it just would be a different time on the clock than it used to be. If we used UTC...it would be 13:00-21:00 UTC. It would still be daylight hours, just a different time than it used to be.

Did you really think if we went to UTC that everybody's work day would begin and end at the same time as it used to? That means something like 4B people all working the same 8 hours of the 24-hour day. That's some sort of dystopian nightmare.

[SheilaT]

88. In which case, why bother to make all the clocks read differently?

Let's just stick to the time zones we have now, so that it's not very confusing.

And yes, I did interpret the putting the whole world on the same time as everyone would conform to that, and you're right, it would be a total dystopian nightmare.

If people complain so bitterly about the shift between standard and daylight time, they would NEVER stop complaining about a permanent reset of the clock. Right now it's about 2:30 in the afternoon, and I would not want this time to be 2130, because to me 2130 is 9:30 at night.

[Delphinus]

95. I am against the Universal Standard Time,

but WANT to STOP DST!

[PoliticAverse]

2. Note that when many people say they want to end "DST" they also mean to permanently stay on it. n/t

[MH1]

27. I don't care whether we keep daylight or standard time.

Over time, culture would adjust to rules that made sense. I.e. schools and businesses might open later or earlier.

I just would like us to pick one and stay with it, instead of changing twice a year.

[pangaia]

33. Why?

[truebluegreen]

56. For me it's a pain in the Azz and

leads to upsets in my sleep cycle: takes a lot longer--as I get older--to adjust. Why bother? AZ gets along just fine without it. I've also read (somewhere) that in the weeks after the change traffic accidents etc tick up.

[SheilaT]

78. One freaking hour? And it upsets your sleep cycle?

What in the world do you do if you go on a trip that has you crossing a time zone or two?

Arizona doesn't do DST because it's so god-awful hot all summer in most of the state that no one is going to be outside enjoying nice weather, so there's not point in it. It does get light far too early all summer, for what my opinion is worth. I've lived in Arizona two different times in my life: in the 60's so I was there the one year (1967) they did DST, and later in the 1980s. Personally, I cannot abide the kind of heat they have there.

[Chan790]

85. It disturbs lots of people's sleep cycles.

It's one of the 2 or 3 largest causes of insomnia as it disrupts the circadian rhythm. There is also a correlation to work-errors increasing around the two clock-changes, an increase in heart attacks and a suspected connection to the onset of certain cancers.

[phylny]

100. You're right, and an increase in strokes, too.

Not to mention how screwed up babies and toddlers get

[truebluegreen]

87. Why yes, yes it does.

Driving across time zones doesn't bother me too much since it is not terribly efficient, flying many time zones to the west doesn't bother me too much either provided I stay up until local bedtime comes, going the other way is a pain in the ass.

As indicated in several responses to the OP, I am not alone in reacting badly to the transition (the spring switcheroo is much worse than the fall one). And I thank you for your concern.

[Nevernose]

102. To pile on: it leaves me "hungover" for a month twice a year

Time zones, and even international travel, don't bother me so much because then I'm usually on vacation and even if I'm working, I usually have more leeway with time and it won't be for more than a few days anyway. But day to day? I've been dreading tonight, for instance, for the last month.

It's just awful, and it's more than a simple inconvenience. It leaves me with headaches, confusion, muddy-headedness. Have you ever had a period of extreme depression? It's like that, except I'm already depressed, so changing the clocks and fucking with my circadian rhythm (for no good reason) just exacerbates it.

I suspect it may have something to do with Seasonal Affective Disorder and other related medical issues.

[Jim Beard]

109. Its fucks up my sleep too.

Not everyone is perfect.

[MH1]

59. Same as truebluegreen, squared, plus

there is a ton of data showing accidents, heart attacks, strokes, etc. all increase after the time change.

I think the more valid question is "why change the clocks twice a year?"

Just because that's the way it's been for a long time, doesn't mean it's right.

[pangaia]

74. I agree about not changing the clocks. No good reason.

I travel a good deal all over the world, so for me a one hour time change s totally a non-event.

And those reports of what the one hour change does to people.. wow...while I will believe it, THAT surprises me.

[Recursion]

97. Yeah, I've noticed that too (nt)

[Blues Heron]

3. What about winter mornings?

I think it's helpful to somewhat track the earlier morning hours by "springing forward." Wouldn't want to be on daylight savings in the winter though, too dark in the AM. Also wouldn't want to stay on standard time in the summer - too much light in the AM!

just my two cents on the perennial matter

[LiberalElite]

47. I can't see how 1 hour

makes that much difference. The farther you are from the equator, the less sunlight you get. It's less daylight in the winter and more in the summer, no matter what we do with the clocks. IMHO the whole thing is silly. AND I HATE LOSING THAT HOUR.

[SheilaT]

79. How about when you get that hour back in the fall?

[pokerfan]

96. Yeah but

What about people who die before fall?. They don't get that hour back. Taken from them forever...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. I'm down with it.

I don't think the electricity argument for changing them applies anymore for many people. We're an urban society that stays up late no matter what, not a rural one that wakes and sleeps with the sun.

[LiberalElite]

48. Agree. We're more of a 24/7 society now - with

many more gadgets and stuff that runs on electricity. I think Daylight Savings Time is an anachronism that needs to DIE.

http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/history.html

[-none]

6. Stop changing the clocks twice a year.

Stay on standard time the year aground. There is a reason it is called Standard Time.
Switching the clocks screws with our internal clocks, which is detrimental to our health. And Daylight Savings Time does not save any energy. In fact the opposite occurs. More energy is used because of air conditioning.
What is the up side to getting up in the dark and going to bed before sun set?

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

61. Standard time puts a lot of kids out in the dark

when walking to school or waiting for the school bus during the winter months.

That's more dangerous than messing with our internal clocks, which I admit I don't like.

[MH1]

65. Why not change the time school starts and ends?

Why not make adjustments where it matters, instead of screwing with all of us?

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

67. Bus routes, after-school activities and work

The buses in many school districts run two or three different routes - in my school district, the high schools go first, then the elementary school, then the middle schools.

Also, an early start in high school allows more time for students to participate in after school activities and work, while still having time for homework.

[CBGLuthier]

7. Yes. DST sucks.

I just had the good fortune to send a year without that nonsense. DST is bad for your health and just plain stupid in the modern era.

[pangaia]

35. That makes no sense.

Why is DST worse for ones health than Standard time? It's just a clock.

[CBGLuthier]

38. Studies have proven a correlation between DST and strokes.

The time change does make a different in our lives.

[pangaia]

41. BUT I am not talking about TIME CHANGE !!

Just pick one or the other.

[CBGLuthier]

42. You are making no sense. We are discussing the two times a year phenomenon

of changing our time. It has bad effects on the health of human beings. Yes, picking one or the other would be fine. But changing twice a year fucks us up.

[LiberalElite]

50. The clocks have to be changed to have

a time change. That's why we run around adjusting every clock in the house twice a year. Capiche?

[bemildred]

8. I have, for what it's worth. nt

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. I hate DST

My body always feels out of whack until we switch back.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. Really? You don't adjust over 7 months?

Why is your body fixed on the shorter (a bit under 5 months) of standard time?

You're the first person I've ever heard of whose body clock is so precise, yet inflexible, that it sticks to a rigid 24 cycle for months, despite the changing seasons around you.

[etherealtruth]

18. The ill effects of time changes have been well studied and documented

its the arbitrary and artificial change that is so disruptive

http://www.livescience.com/40903-daylight-saving-time-affects-your-body.html

1. More car accidents?

An increase in car accidents during daylight saving time has been both supported and refuted in the academic literature. The general concept supporting the case, however, is that subtle changes in sleep patterns and circadian rhythms can alter human alertness and, in some cases, might increase the risk of potentially fatal car accidents.

Still, one 2010 Journal of Environmental Public Health study that analyzed the number of traffic accidents in Finland one week before and one week after transitions into and out of daylight saving time from 1981 through 2006 found no significant change in the number of accidents during this time period. Another 2010 study published in the Journal of Safety Research found that daylight saving time can actually result in fewer crashes by increasing visibility for drivers in the morning.

2. Increased workplace injuries

Though this threat may not apply to those who work in the relatively padded confines of carpeted office buildings, others who work at more physically taxing jobs, such as miners, have been shown to experience more frequent and severe workplace injuries at the onset of daylight saving time in the spring. The effect has not been detected at the end of daylight saving time in the fall.

The 2009 Journal of Applied Psychology study that came to this conclusion found that mine workers arrived at work with 40 minutes less sleep and experienced 5.7 percent more workplace injuries in the week directly following the springtime daylight saving transition than during any other days of the year. The researchers attribute the injuries to lack of sleep, which might explain why the same effect did not pop up in the fall when workers gained an hour of sleep. [Top 10 Spooky Sleep Disorders]

3. More heart attacks



4. Longer cyberloafing


5. Increased cluster headaches

Body's Clock Never Adjusts to Daylight Saving Time
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4509150

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Changing to daylight saving time may give people an hour more of sunlight, but it appears that their internal body clocks never really adjusts to the change, German researchers report.

In fact, daylight saving time can cause a significant seasonal disruption that might have other effects on our bodies, according to the report in the Oct. 24 online edition of Current Biology.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. But it makes no sense that the body feels worse for the 7 months, not the 5

I think people have confused that they feel worse during most of spring, summer and autumn, with a change in the clocks. Of course a study in Central Europe can find people's waking-up time doesn't track sunrise in summer as well as it does in winter - because it becomes too early for them. In winter, later sunrises make your body want to stay in bed later. They didn't do an experiment with the people living through a summer without DST.

Yes, there are effects at the time of change - but they don't last 7 months. The natural signals of light and temperature mean that the body never keeps a precise 24 hour cycle through the entire year, and the idea that your body hasn't made the 60 minute adjustment after 200 days, even with light and temperature varying by more than an hour in that time, is absurd.

[etherealtruth]

30. Studies appear to to back up the notion that the body does not fully adjust

Body's Clock Never Adjusts to Daylight Saving Time
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4509150

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Changing to daylight saving time may give people an hour more of sunlight, but it appears that their internal body clocks never really adjusts to the change, German researchers report.

In fact, daylight saving time can cause a significant seasonal disruption that might have other effects on our bodies, according to the report in the Oct. 24 online edition of Current Biology.


For both morning larks and night owls, their timing for sleep and peak activity easily adjusted when daylight saving time ended in the fall. However, it never adjusted to the return to daylight saving time in spring. This was especially true for night owls -- those who stay up late and sleep late.

"If we didn't change to daylight saving time, people would adjust to dawn during the summer and again to dawn in the autumn," Roenneberg. "But this natural adjustment is interrupted by daylight saving time," he said.

[muriel_volestrangler]

60. As I said, that's a bogus study

They didn't study what happens in summer without DST. So they don't know that it's DST that causes the effect.

[etherealtruth]

69. There are many, many studies (I did not cite the scholarly ones) that back this up

You have expressed that this has not been your experience, but it is the experience of many, many people. Personal , anecdotal and experiential bias do not change the out come of the studies (admittedly like all studies they are narrowly defined). The studies confirm this; there do not seem to be any studies that refute the assertion. The studies identify the time changes associated with DST as the culprit (more specifically the body's inability to deal with the artificial and arbitrary change in sleep wake patterns associated with the time change).





http://phys.org/news/2015-10-daylight-linked-injuries-heart-scrap.html

While the clocks on most digital devices update automatically, transitions into and out of DST can be difficult for us humans. And a number of recent studies are providing insights into how a solitary hour can inadvertently affect our health, mood and productivity – often in a negative way.
Effects on human health
In 2008, researchers examined the influence of these transitions on the incidence of heart attacks across several years of hospital admissions data. They focused on the two weeks before and after the clocks changed. Worryingly, they found a spike in the number of reported heart attacks after the transition to DST in the spring. In contrast, after moving out of daylight savings time in the autumn this trend was reversed.
These patterns were more pronounced in patients who were of working age (under 65) and the authors argued that the effects may have stemmed from the negative effects of sleep deprivation on cardiovascular health. They also suggested that vulnerable people should avoid other rapid changes to their sleeping patterns similar to those experienced as part of DST.
Transitions into and out of DST have also been associated with road traffic accidents, workplace injuries, poor mood and reduced efficiency. And many of these effects have been attributed to changes in sleep duration. The effect is likely to be magnified even further as many people are now regularly sleep deprived – the average sleep duration has fallen from nine to 7.5 hours during the 20th century.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-10-daylight-linked-injuries-heart-scrap.html#jCp

http://www.aasmnet.org/jcsm/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=30138

Conclusions
The early March DST onset adversely affected sleep and vigilance in high school students resulting in increased daytime sleepiness. Larger scale evaluations of sleep impairments related to DST are needed to further quantify this problem in the population. If confirmed, measures to attenuate sleep loss post-DST should be implemented.
Citation
Medina D, Ebben M, Milrad S, Atkinson B, Krieger AC. Adverse effects of daylight saving time on adolescents' sleep and vigilance. J Clin Sleep Med 2015;11(8):879–884.

http://bmcphysiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6793-8-3

Background

Daylight saving time (DST) is commonly used worldwide and affects millions of people annually. It equals to one-hour time zone crossing eastward in the spring and westward in the fall. In the European Union, DST currently begins on the last Sunday of March, when the clocks are turned forwards by one hour, and ends on the last Sunday of October, when the clocks are turned backwards by one hour. The rationale for DST is to improve the match between the daylight hours with the activity peaks of a population. Fall transition out of DST increases the available daylight in the morning by one hour. Spring transition into DST leads to an increase of the available daylight in the evening. In our previous studies, we found that transition into daylight saving time may disrupt the rest-activity cycle in healthy adults [1, 2]. Herein, our aim was to assess the daily rest-activity cycles together with night-time sleep at transitions out of and into daylight saving time in healthy adults. Our goal was to find out whether the changes induced by transition into DST were similar in fall and spring.

Results

Fall: before versus after transition
The movement and fragmentation index (P = 0.01; Z = -2,52) was increased in all the participants after the transition (Table 1). Sleep efficiency (P = 0.02; Z = -2.38) and relative amplitude (P = 0.02; Z = -2.43) were reduced in all except one participant after transition.
Table 1

[muriel_volestrangler]

70. Those are all about what happens *at the time of a change*; I'm talking about months after it

This sub-thread has developed because a DUer said that, even 7 months after changing to DST, they are still not feeling right, but they do feel right once the clocks go back to standard time.

That is something I have never heard anyone say before, and the studies do not show it.

[etherealtruth]

72. I would be inclined to believe that we all adapt on a continuum ....

.... in the sub thread, the DUer reports that they live in an area that did not institute DST until they were in their thirties. i would imagine that has played into their difficulty adjusting. The studies do show that their is a continuum and individual ability to adapt.

Although I do "adjust" .... my internal rhythms are not in sync with DST .

[SheilaT]

80. That would imply that people likewise never fully adjust

to crossing time zones, which strikes me as total nonsense.

The usual rule of thumb about adjusting is one day for each zone you cross. So people saying that they just don't ever adjust, even over months, to the switch between ST and DST is nonsense.

[etherealtruth]

83. I am not sure what you mean ....????

Are you saying that people moving to a new time zone, twice annually, all adjust completely... I would guess that if one moved to a different time zone with the frequency of the time changes with DST (beginning and ending) the result would be the same for the individual.

I don't think you read any of the articles and studies ... people adjust but to varying degrees. I have no problem believing those that say they never completely adjust ... I think that would be true of me ... I generally require an alarm from spring to fall ... and don't even bother setting an arm from fall to spring. This is anecdotal proof that I have never completely adjusted.

[SheilaT]

89. But the effects of the switch between standard and daylight time

goes away pretty quickly, as does the disruption when someone crosses time zones. Otherwise the best way to run the planet would be for no one to move, ever. Or to ever take a trip that requires crossing a time zone.

What if you simply have to get up extra early one day because, say, you're catching an early morning flight? Don't you recover from that particular shortage of sleep in a couple of days?

[etherealtruth]

91. for you ... and generally for me

I am not sure what you are disputing?

The data (i.e. increases in heart attacks, increases in vehicular accidents .... increases in depression and the severity of ..... surrounding the time changes. I don't analyze data such as presented in the studies, but a cursory look at them seems to indicate that the studies cited have been competently performed and replicated ....? I am not sure where you are going with this? Can you find reputable data disputing this?

Personal and anecdote experience really mean nothing .... so again I ask where you are going with this?

What if you simply have to get up extra early one day because, say, you're catching an early morning flight? Don't you recover from that particular shortage of sleep in a couple of days?

If you think abut it, the above is not comparable. A situation that would be comparable would be a change in working hours that occurred twice yearly (e.g. a work start time at 8:00AM changing to 7:00AM (or 9:00). In that case I would expect to see the risks to the individual being similar to those noted for a population in the DST studies. That does happen all the time and individuals face increases in risk of bad out comes vs populations experiencing that risk.


It would be really interesting to read the results of studies that refute the studies indicating that there adverse effects on people associated with the time changes.

[SheilaT]

92. First of all, the increase in heart attacks and such

isn't that huge, even though it's real, and to what extent the change of the clocks is truly responsible isn't totally clear.

As for changing work times, that does happen to people. In the Kansas City area, where I used to live, a number of companies had special summer hours, where people came in an hour earlier and got off at noon on Friday. I haven't worked one of those jobs, and I'm not sure I'd want to.

Admittedly, I'm not much of a morning person myself, and much of my working life I held an afternoon shift. I almost always got enough sleep, which is really the issue. Most people are chronically sleep deprived and just don't recognize it. People take great pride in only sleeping x number of hours a night, and then wonder why they never feel terrific, or why they catch every little thing that goes around.

I just think people are making a huge big deal out of the switch between standard and daylight time that's unwarranted. Or maybe I'm the only person in North America who likes the change, except that if it were up to me DST would start in the middle of April and end at the end of September. But I'm not in charge of that.

[pangaia]

36. That (Not you) is just stupid.

It's a damn clock. It has nothing to do with reality.

If we stayed on what we have named "DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIMEY," 'they' are telling me it is bad for out bodies?

[etherealtruth]

46. Unfortunately it hs everything to do with reality in a highly .....

I need to be at work at a specific time (actually I have more lee-way than others).... scheduled society.

[charlespercydemocrat]

108. yes

I agree with the above statement.

[raging moderate]

34. Up until the Bush/Cheney regime, we were on Standard Time most of the year.

Which is why it was called Standard Time. If we are going to be on Daylight Saving Time most of the year, then the time used during the winter should not be called Standard Time anymore. Because it isn't. Not when we are on it for only a few months. I agree that we should stay on one or the other and stop switching back and forth. I could live with either one.

[muriel_volestrangler]

63. No, up until then, the USA was on DST for almost 7 months; now it's nearly 8 months

On Monday August 8, 2005 President Bush signed into law a broad energy bill that extended Daylight Saving Time by four weeks beginning in 2007. Since 1986 the United States had observed Daylight Saving Time from the first Sunday in April through the last Sunday in October. The provisions of the bill call for Daylight Saving Time to begin three weeks earlier on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. Read our special section about the extension of Daylight Saving Time.

http://www.timetemperature.com/tzus/daylight_saving_time.shtml

It's called 'standard time' because it has the sun at its highest point, due south, at noon in the middle of the zone. This matches with Greenwich Mean Time, based on the position of the sun at Greenwich, the origin for international longitude.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

44. It may have something to do

with the fact that we (Indiana) didn't start DST until I was in my 30's. The only change I ever noticed beforehand is when my favorite TV programs came on earlier. Other than that, the only other time I experienced any time change was when I traveled (which has been infrequent over the years)

[muriel_volestrangler]

68. But the natural change in sunrise and sunset doesn't affect you

while the artificial naming of the time does?

[FLPanhandle]

17. How do you travel?

Going to Europe or even US coast to coast with the time zone changes must be impossible.

Odd you don't adapt to a new time zone. Don't you travel?

[pangaia]

37. I know.. I'm in stitches.

I have a friend who is a concert violinist. She travels the world every few days and manages to play the Sibelius, tchaikovsky, beethoven, Brahms, Bruch, Shostakovich, etc etc violin concerti, play chanber music, give master classes, radio and TV interviews... without a problem.. jeesh.

:&gt ))

[Proud Liberal Dem]

45. I don't travel much

The most I've done over the last few years is to Florida, which is on the same time.

[etherealtruth]

21. There are numerous studies that document exactly what you say .....

I eventually adjust but it takes weeks


Body's Clock Never Adjusts to Daylight Saving Time
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4509150

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Changing to daylight saving time may give people an hour more of sunlight, but it appears that their internal body clocks never really adjusts to the change, German researchers report.

In fact, daylight saving time can cause a significant seasonal disruption that might have other effects on our bodies, according to the report in the Oct. 24 online edition of Current Biology.

edit to add:

For both morning larks and night owls, their timing for sleep and peak activity easily adjusted when daylight saving time ended in the fall. However, it never adjusted to the return to daylight saving time in spring. This was especially true for night owls -- those who stay up late and sleep late.

"If we didn't change to daylight saving time, people would adjust to dawn during the summer and again to dawn in the autumn," Roenneberg. "But this natural adjustment is interrupted by daylight saving time," he said.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

64. If people never adjust, how does one move to Europe?

Yeah, jetlag is horrible, but if we can adjust to that, surely we can make a one hour adjustment to our internal clock.

[etherealtruth]

71. Moving to a different time zone is difficult ....

Reading through the studies there is a continuum of adjustment (i.e. some people adjust quickly with little adverse effect and some adjust poorly or never quite adjust).

Anecdotally, it takes me a couple of weeks to adjust to each time change.

My objection to the time changes is that there is no relevant interest in changing the time in a society that functions around the clock (we can shop, go out to eat, work, take classes 24 hours a day). I don't care which time we choose .... just pick one and stick with it. We don't save energy, increase business, enhance lifestyles by making the arbitrary change.

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

73. I get terrible, terrible jet lag

but I do eventually adjust if I'm there long enough - like a few months.

[FLPanhandle]

10. As long as we get to stay on DST

I love the extra daylight after work.

[etherealtruth]

13. YES!!!!!!

Pick a time and stick with it .... we have x amount of daylight hours, period.

I live in Michigan ... in the winter i leave for work in the dark and return from work in the dark .... it does not matter.

[Califonz]

15. Adjust the clocks MORE often, not less

So that we get three hours of daylight after 5 PM, year-round!

Going to work in the dark isn't so bad. Sunrise at 10 AM, who cares? Scandinavian countries are quite successful in dealing with that sort of thing.

[Travis_0004]

22. how do you handle that?

Miami and portland maine are in the same time zone, but the sun sets about 90 minutes earlier in Maine in December. Do we add more time zones? In winter maine and Flordia would be on different time zones, and the same time zones in the spring and fall?

[pangaia]

40. The only really smart statement here. good work...

I propose we set the clocks back in the morning by 2 hours, say at 8 am.. Then set them ahead at 2 pm by 2 hours. That way we get more done in less time and don't have to work so long.

[noamnety]

49. That logic doesn't apply to all of us.

Going to work in the dark isn't so bad - IF you drive a car or have good access to public transportation.

That's not the case for everyone. I ride my bike to work, over an hour commute each way. Riding in the dark is stressful and more dangerous. Most accidents occur in the day - because most bike rides happen during the day. But most fatalities occur at night.

Even without drivers trying to kill us, it's a lot harder in the dark to see potholes, whether something is a puddle or black ice, if it is a puddle we can't see what the pavement beneath the water looks like, we have to account for reaction time when our light only shines X number feet to illuminate what's in front of us.

Scandinavian countries may fair better with their higher rates of bicycle riders; drivers are more used to seeing bikes on the road.

Pedestrians have similar safety problems getting to work in the dark (not so much outrunning their headlights, but getting hit by drivers).

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

62. Going to school in the dark "is" dangerous

for the millions of school children who will be walking to school or waiting for a school bus.

[Travis_0004]

16. Im ok with the idea only if it was year round DST.

[restorefreedom]

19. 24 percent increase in heart attacks on monday after forward change

is it really worth THAT?

no imo

of course, there is also the argument that if people are going through life so sleep deprived and stressed that a one hour loss of sleep puts them over the edge, we are a seriously screwed up society. but the clock thing is easier to deal with for starters

http://www.livescience.com/50068-daylight-saving-time-heart-attacks.html

[Travis_0004]

23. yes

"This suggests that spring daylight saving may have affected people who were going to have heart attacks anyway, Gurm said."

[restorefreedom]

24. probably true for many, but hey, why save lives

when theres money to be made?

i am sure that somewhere, thats at the bottom of the resistance

[Travis_0004]

55. it could be argued that extra daylight allows people to be more active

Im more active when there is extra daylight as Im not cycling in the dark. I see kids out playong with the extra daylight. There are health benefits to more daylight after work and school.

[restorefreedom]

58. i am not overly invested in which time frame we go with

we just need to pick one imo and stick withh it. yes, exercise definitely huge in keeping people healthy. i think one of the reasons we keep flipping is so that morning people and evening people boh get some light. also there is an overriding issue...how stressed are we that an hour sleep,loss triggers a heart attack?

[The2ndWheel]

20. Get rid of clocks

Pretty much solves everything.

[onyourleft]

25. Yes.

The sooner, the better.

[dchill]

28. Yes.

[LiberalElite]

29. YES Absolutely There's still only 24 hours in a day - plus

Last edited Sat Mar 12, 2016, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)

it's not healthy for some. Link: http://www.livescience.com/50078-daylight-saving-time-unhealthy.html

Some states, like Arizona, don't observe it anyway.

[pangaia]

32. I think we should consider having no time.

[Hoyt]

39. Good debate question. Would you pledge to end DST?

[edhopper]

43. YES!

And why are they saving daylight in the summer, when there is plenty of it.
Why is it okay for it to get dark at 4 in the winter, but stay light till 9 in the summer?

[MrsKirkley]

51. time change occurs before the end of winter

To me, it doesn't make sense for the time change to occur before winter is officially over. Either get rid of the time change or go back to the old schedule before they changed it a few years ago.

[sofa king]

52. Here are some neat maps about that.

http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2015/11/19/9762276/daylight-saving-time-bad-mapped

I think that mucking with daylight savings time simply plays into the hands of rich, greedy assholes who are constantly looking to squeeze a little more profit and productivity out of the slave-wage drone fleet. They want you to drive to work in the dark, work all the daylight hours so that they pay less for electricity, and drive home in the dark, so that you, the slave-wager, pay for your own lighting and heat and they don't. That's how it already works in winter.

If we adjust our daylight savings time schedule, they'll simply change the work schedule so that you continue to get screwed in the winter, only now your biological clocks will be at the mercy of your unempathetic employer instead of our unempathetic government, so you may enjoy a period of having to come in 15 minutes earlier every two weeks in the spring, for example, and the opposite in the fall.

Factor in the now well-documented fact that high school kids become more stupid (and therefore more Republican) the earlier they go in to school, and it's obvious to me that there is no solution which will not be malevolently exploited by our keepers. Show me a solution that works for average humans instead of their overlords, and I'll be all for it. I don't think there is one.

[Nye Bevan]

54. Definitely. It takes me about a week to adjust when the clocks change.

Just stay on DST all year round.

[earthside]

57. Permanent Daylight Savings Time.

And, I do think we could have just two time zones in the continental United States -- and Alaska and Hawaii in a third time zone.

[oldandhappy]

66. YES!!!

[pokerfan]

75. Yes, please

Keep noon, noon.

It's just ridiculous. The stereotypical workday begins at 9 and ends at 5. Take a look at that. Just three hours of work before noon followed by five hours afterwards. Presumably to make it easier to get to work. But then, to get in 8 hours, you have to run all the way to 5, leaving little daylight after work. What to do... What to do... Yeah, lets change the clocks so that in effect you start the work day at 8 and end at 4. That's the ticket!

[SheilaT]

82. I didn't think there were any companies left

that had an actual 9 to 5 schedule. That disappeared in the 1960's, and really only existed, so far as I can tell, for some firms in NYC. The rare times I've had a day job, we always started at 8am, got off at 5pm, unless we only had a half hour lunch, then it was 4:30.

[pokerfan]

94. People work all kinds of hours these days

All the more reason to leave the clocks be.

[braddy]

76. Yes, pick a clock and stick with it, quit trying to reset me.

[radical noodle]

81. Yes!

Indiana stayed on the same time for years and it was wonderful. Then Mitch Daniels came along and created chaos again.

[AwakeAtLast]

99. Actually, it was chaotic when IN had standard time

Because Indiana had three time zones. It had an effect on the business I worked at, because the out of state vendors couldn't keep it straight. Two of the three time zones following DST made it worse.

Don't get me wrong, I liked not changing clocks. And he should have put Indiana in the Central time zone, not Eastern.

[no_hypocrisy]

90. If the change doesn't happen, where I live in NJ, this would happen:

By June 21, sunrise at 4:30 a.m.

Not sure how'd I like that.

[Stuart G]

93. Yes...

[pokerfan]

98. Memes....

[Purveyor]

101. Yes. eom

[libodem]

103. Hell Yes

It's a brutal exercise in futility. It's cruel in a nation already deprived of sleep. It's stupid.

[Kingofalldems]

104. No

[liberal N proud]

105. It tis stupid

More daylight

[itsrobert]

106. Yes

Yes

[Warpy]

107. Only if it makes DST permanent.

Standard time is just fucking depressing with no light in the evening.

[Jim Beard]

110. I don't understand why people want more daylight in the summer when

the daylength increases normally.

[rsneha]

111. Time

You can also try this time zone converter.