On The Faulty Logic Of Wanting Year-Round Daylight Saving Time

[Towlie]

There are many who want to abolish daylight saving time, and I agree with that. If a business or activity is affected in some important way by the presence or absence of sunlight then let it adopt a variable schedule, but let's keep our clocks honest about what the time actually is.

But there are also people who want permanent daylight saving time, and that makes no sense at all. Our long-established customs of getting up, going to work or school, opening and closing businesses, eating lunch, eating dinner, going to bed at night, and generally living our daily lives according to the time displayed on our clocks would only automatically adapt over time to compensate for a permanent one-hour clock advance, eventually prompting these same naive people into asking for another one-hour advance of the clocks, until they finally realize that cutting 12 inches from one end of a blanket and sewing it onto the other end doesn't help it cover your feet.

What do you think about this?

[we can do it]

1. Nope. Would like to be able to enjoy daylight, not be awakened at 4:30 am.

[wcast]

2. I agree.

Besides I'd rather it be light longer after work than before. Guess it depends on where you live.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. Think you've got it backward.

During DST, the sun both rises and sets 'later'

[we can do it]

8. Nope. So it rises an hour later that would make it 5:30 instead of 4:30.

[FiveGoodMen]

9. Guess I didn't understand what your original 'Nope' was responding to

It came off as "Nope. Don't want year-round DST because the sun would rise at 4:30."

[we can do it]

10. Its ok.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. Sorry for the confusion

back at 'cha!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. The biggest problem with year round DST

is that in some parts of the country, in the winter kids will be going to school well before sunrise. The one year we had DST for the full year, it proved to be highly problematical in this regard, and I believe there were several instances of kids waiting for school busses being struck by cars.

Arizona stays on standard time all year, which is just fine for that state. It's so freaking hot in places like Phoenix and Tucson (I've lived in both cities) that there's nothing to be gained by an extra hour of daylight in the evening. It does mean that it gets light quite early on summer mornings.

Personally, I like the switch, but it shouldn't occur until April and DST should end no later than the end of September. The silliness of keeping it through Halloween so that kids can trick or treat in daylight just doesn't wash, because even with DST, the sun sets about 6pm, and kids are trick or treating in the dark anyway.

[padfun]

4. I'm with you, no daylight savings time

I get up around 4:00 AM every morning and like to walk outside for a bit sometimes. But it doesn't matter to me whether it is light or dark when I do. It never gets below 30 degrees here so temperatures aren't a problem.

[brooklynite]

5. Here's the problem with Standard Time...

Broadly speaking, with a 24 hour clock cycle, 12:00 should be the point at which the sun is highest in the sky, giving you (depending on the season and latitude) 5-7 hours of daylight before and after noon (as early as 5 AM, as late as 7 PM). However, we don't live on a cycle that matches that; we get up at 6 AM (6 hours to noon) or later, but go to bed at 10 PM (10 hours from noon) or later. Thus we are "wasting" daylight in the early morning when we want it to still be dark, and losing the opportunity to make use of it in the evening when we're still active.

[we can do it]

11. Yes.

[scscholar]

6. Bush so hatefully expanded it recently

That shows he doesn't grok time. Doesn't grok time. That screwed a lot of businesses since he did it with such short notice. Several Microsoft products we had broke because of this change and because Microsoft mostly doesn't employ competent people any longer. A lot of them are as dumb as Bush.

[alarimer]

13. What I hate is the time change itself.

I lose an hour of sleep (and I already get too little because of the cat, the little bastard) and it affects me for a while.

[pkdu]

28. LOL- You owe me a new keyboard...or maybe the "little bastard" does nt

[cemaphonic]

14. I have seen studies that suggest that support for DST/switching increases the further people get

from the equator.

Certainly fits me (in Seattle). I don't want it to be getting light at 4:30 in the summer, and I appreciate the extra daylight in the evening. But I also don't want my kids going to school in the dark during the winter.

[TexasBushwhacker]

15. Makes sense to me

As does switching back for winter. I've always lived in Texas, but I went to Chicago once around New Year's once, so it was very close to the solstice. The street lamps started coming on around 4 pm and I was like WTF? BUT sunrise was around 7, si if the had permanent DST, kids would be waiting fir the school bus in absolute darkness. No thanks!

[Angry Dragon]

16. It would unbalance the Universe

[Skittles]

17. all I know is, people seem to be WAY to delicate

I work 12 hour night shifts - night / day hours absolutely mean NOTHING to me

[billh58]

18. Hawaii doessn't have DST

and we do just fine. In the short months of winter, I sometimes drive to work in the dark and come home in the dark, but it's not a big deal. The long summer days are great for family activities or just chilling with friends.

The only drawback is trying to figure out the time difference between Hawaii and different parts of the Mainland so that we can be sure and call you when you're already in bed...

[caraher]

19. If you want year-round DST...

just advocate for shifting school and work by 1 hour and leave the clocks alone! There is nothing magical or sacred about 8 or 9 AM...

[Tikki]

20. I get it..but I love daylight savings and in a perfect World the sun would set later..

in the day.

But, maybe, this is because we actually get a lot of sunshine most days here.
I would imagine places that are cold and gray wouldn't care so much.

Tikki

[subterranean]

27. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Summer is the one time of year we get a lot of sun.

I like Daylight Saving Time up here so I can enjoy the sunshine as much as possible before the clouds and rain return for another 8 months.

[Laffy Kat]

21. I think the entire world should go on GMT.

What's wrong with time being the same everywhere? We'd get used to it.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

22. I had the same idea

I can set my alarm to get up at 11 instead of 6. My phone is cool like that.

Just skip the changing. It's annoying.

[Laffy Kat]

23. Well that makes two of us!

[Thew]

24. Do not care, but...

if we could just leave the clocks alone.

I guarantee, whatever is picked, no one will remember or care after year and we've all adjusted.

[fishwax]

25. Why would they want another one hour advance of the clocks?

Nobody likes DST because the clocks go forward an hour. They like DST (those who do) because they have an extra hour of light after they get off work. I mean, personally I don't care, but I don't get the logic of your argument against year round DST. Whether we keep DST all year or drop DST completely, there is no such thing as "what the time actually is" with respect to standardized time. The whole point of standardized time is that we get to decide what time it is.

[PoliticAverse]

26. It's a battle between early risers and late risers. n/t

[blue sky at night]

29. So whats wrong with it not getting....

Dark at 4:30 in December...I F U C K I N G hate that....

[Phoenix61]

30. We didn't have time zones at all until the 1800's

I live just a few miles west of the Eastern/Central time zone line. Sunset at 4:30 in the winter is just plain miserable. I am so looking forward to DTS.

[LWolf]

31. I don't agree that it's faulty logic.

I love daylight savings time, because I get to start the day earlier, and end up with more daylight at the end of my work day. That's important for me. It's true that I'm a morning person, and naturally get up earlier. No matter what the clock says, if the sun is already up when I wake up, I'm grumpy and my whole day is off. I like to greet the sun. That's not a reason to adjust clocks for everyone.

It doesn't matter how much daylight I have before I head off to work in the morning. I get to work at 7 AM, no matter what time system we're on. I have to be clean and professional. I can't spend time gardening, cleaning the barn, and otherwise using that daylight, because then I don't have time to get cleaned up and polished off again. I need that daylight time when I get home. And DST gives me that; more daylight AFTER the work day to use. Most days I get home between 5 and 6, unless there is some special scheduling and programming that keeps me at work longer.

During the winter, I go months never seeing my place in the daylight during the work week; since I have acres, and horses, and a barn, and lots of related outdoor chores, that's really hard. For the shortest days, it probably doesn't matter; it's going to be dark anyway. DST, though, would give me more days with light after work than standard time does, and that's what counts.

It's not about the sleep; I get the same amount of sleep on either schedule. It's about daylight after work.

Even more, though, I wish we could just pick one and stick with it. I would give up that precious extra daylight if we could just quit fucking with my body clock twice a year.

[Skittles]

32. as someone who works 12 hour night shifts I have to say

day shift people are the biggest wimps / whiners EVER

try sleeping with a dozen guys working on your apartment ceiling, or weedeaters all day, or just the normal everyday noise of dayshift INCONSIDERATE ASSHOLES

THEN you will know what losing sleep REALLY means

AND OMG, you lose an hour of daylight? BOO FUCK HOO! I go WEEKS without seeing much daylight.