Thanks to songwriter and performer, Billy Currington. With his lyrics, I now take my annual stand as an anti-Time Change guy.
Honest, I’m not in any way alluding to Election Tuesday with these first words of Currington’s quoted lyrical phrases:
“Talkin’ politics…
Old dogs and new tricks and Habits we ain’t kicked.”
We ain’t kicked
In nearly all of our United States , we rely on “auto” smart devices or our manual dexterity to “Fall Back” our clocks and timekeepers for the perennial Time Change(s).
Why, why, a hundred times Why?
And a shoutout to those two states, five U.S. territories, and the Navajo Nation in our Union that opt to keep the same circadian rhythm year-round. Bravo, Hawaii, and Arizona who did kick the clock!
This man-made “daylight savings” has always confounded me. Sure, our one-time gain for a 25-hour day feels good for a very short time. Then, the Sunday, November 3rd sunset comes too early for me. And…drumroll… we lose an hour of sleep early next March 2025. That is a zero-sum game that makes nil sense to me. This is pointedly so when we consider the documental damages to the mental health of many!
“The time change can be jarring, throwing off the sleep patterns and altering internal schedules…”
So, how about a Sunshine Protection Act at the national level? That sounded very good to me, as did my state’s Californian initiative to end the crazy (imo) time changes. Our Congress hasn’t moved a draft Sunshine Protection Act to the President’s desk in two annual tries. Without “talkin’ politics” in excess, Senator Mark Rubio stated, ”stop enduring the ridiculous and antiquated practice of switching our clocks back and forth…”
I rhetorically ask, “what savings plan works in a zero-sum investment?”
I politely agree, yet disagree with the good Senator from the Sunshine state. As a rational man, I do want to bid adieu to the “ridiculous and antiquated.” Yet, I favor a STANDARD time all year, every year. Isn’t the definition and practice of standard good enough? I vote for Daylight STANDARD Time.
As one in the business of promoting healthspans and lifespans, I commend to you the salient observations of Doctor(PhD) Adam Spira, a sleep and mental health expert with the Johns Hopkins University –
“ about 63% of Americans would prefer to eliminate DST, and 55% experience tiredness following the switch. But the time transition does more than just inspire mixed opinions, grogginess, and foul moods. Researchers say that the change has long-term negative consequences for our bodies and minds.” Period.
Please invest some of your “extra hour” to consider these things to know about “our” savings — — —
- Making the shift can increase your health risks.
- Fatal traffic accidents occur by 6% after our “fall back” shift!
2. Daylight Savings Time may NOT save energy in current days –
- “ extending … daylight hours encourages people to use more air conditioning and heating.
3. Heart Attacks are more prevalent when our circadian rhythms and regular sleep are altered!
The Oxford Dictionary reminds us that a standard is “used or accepted as normal or average.” I like normal. How about you?
— Do Dairy Cows care what a timepiece shows for daylight or twilight?
- Do “smart” energy-controlled offices care about abnormal sunshine or moonbeams?
- The flip side to a sunny-side-up bus ride for schoolkids is that they have a dark bus ride home in our late autumn and winter months 🙁 That seems like another zero-sum game for those of us in the mid-latitudes of America…)
Didn’t we get along just fine in 1974, though there were, and always will be dissenters about time shifts? [Our Nation’s lawmakers suspected that the Energy Crises of those “dark” days might be mitigated by DST.] That was one half-century ago!
What do our economic competitors do about twice-yearly time shifts to “save” daylight?
- I recall that Japan, India, and China do not observe daylight saving. These countries seem to be performing just fine without timefoolery.
And, according to Pew Research, “Europe and the United States are more the exception than the rule. Most countries do not observe daylight saving time — the practice of advancing and winding back clocks seasonally in the spring and fall.”
A hero of mine, namely Ben Franklin was the brain behind the “early to bed and early to rise” concept of Daylight Savings Time (DST) way back in 1784. Then, our nation hoped that DST might help with industrialization for World War I. Would you agree that times have changed with technology and travel?
Isn’t it time to stop “tinkering with time?”Or, am I crazy?
My two or inflationary three-cent assertion is that YES we should! As we keep kickin’ around Sleep Protection Acts (or permanent standard time), please proactively educate yourself and use restorative sleep to counter this time-tinkering.