Time is the wisest counselor of all. —Pericles
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It’s baaaaack!
Early Sunday morning Daylight Savings Time reentered our lives, and we all lost an hour of sleep. Interestingly, the U.S. is one of only about 34% of the world’s countries that observe DST. So why did we decide to use this strange time shift phenomenon?
BEGINNINGS
Benjamin Franklin probably had something to do with it. As the U.S. Ambassador to France in 1784, he wrote a satirical letter to the Journal de Paris saying Parisians could save money on candles and oil just by getting up earlier in the summer. Barely a hundred years later, time zones were invented.
According to the National Museum of American History
Before 1883, towns across the nation set their own times by observing the position of the sun, so there were hundreds of local times. Instead of Eastern Standard Time, for example, there was Philadelphia Standard Time or Charleston Standard Time. In the 1850s, railroads began to operate under about fifty regional times, each set to an agreed-upon, arbitrary standard time. Rail companies often induced a region to abandon local time in favor of the railroad’s operating time.
On November 18, 1883, local times across the nation—determined by the position of the sun overhead—were consolidated into standardized time zones. Each zone had a uniform time within its boundaries. The railroads implemented the change for their own benefit. But gradually, despite scattered resistance, standard time became the way everyone kept time.
A DAYLIGHT SAVINGS IDEA
In 1895, a New Zealand entomologist and astronomer George Hudson made the first realistic proposal to change clocks by two hours every spring. Although his proposal wasn’t implemented, it may have set the stage for DST.
The U.S. Congress, of course, got into the act. Article I, Section 8, Clause 5 of our Constitution gives Congress the power to fix the standard of weights and measures, and that includes determining time. This resulted in several time zone-related bills.
Again, from the National Museum of American History
The federal government first officially recognized standard time during World War I, in an act to establish Daylight Saving Time. At war’s end, Congress repealed Daylight Saving Time in response to farmers more in sync with the sun than the clock. During World War II, Congress authorized a temporary year-round daylight saving time, dubbed “War Time.” No national legislation provided for Daylight Saving Time until the Uniform Time Act of 1966.
The Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized the start and end dates for daylight saving time in the United States, and the authority for overseeing it was given to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Some interesting facts about options for DST are on the U.S. DOT website:
DOT also oversees the Nation’s uniform observance of Daylight Saving Time; however, DOT does not have the power to repeal or change Daylight Saving Time. Nor does DOT have any role to play in a State’s determination whether to observe Daylight Saving Time. If a State chooses to observe Daylight Saving Time, it must begin and end on federally mandated dates. Under the Uniform Time Act, States may choose to exempt themselves from observing Daylight Saving Time by State law. States do not have the authority to choose to be on permanent Daylight Saving Time.
DO WE REALLY NEED THIS?
Recent polls indicate most people in the U.S. are of the “pick one and stick to it” opinion. Unfortunately, about half want Standard Time and the other half want Savings Time to be the norm.
So here, I humbly propose my own solution to the time problem: Common (as in “common sense”) Time. I propose we make each time zone uniform with the time set to halfway between Standard Time and DST. For example, I am in the Central Time Zone. We would use Central Common Time. Instead of one p.m. Standard Time or two p.m. DST, Central Common Time would be one-thirty p.m. Simple, right?
Since I suspect my proposal has considerably less than a one percent chance of being enacted, I am willing to be Standard or Savings just as long as they don’t disturb my sleep anymore.
WRITING
But what does all this have to do with writing?
It’s well known that disruption in sleep habits has a negative effect on productivity. But according to an article on the Johns Hopkins University website about the effect of switching to Daylight Saving Time, it’s much more intrusive than that.
“The scientific evidence points to acute increases in adverse health consequences from changing the clocks, including in heart attack and stroke,” says sleep expert Adam Spira, PhD, MA, a professor in Mental Health.
The change is also associated with a heightened risk of mood disturbances and hospital admissions, as well as elevated production of inflammatory markers in response to stress. The potential for car crashes also spikes just after the spring forward, Spira says; a 2020 study found that the switch raises the risk of fatal traffic accidents by 6%.
Yikes. Better to fall asleep at your desk than go for an afternoon car ride.
HOPE
The Sunshine Protection Act (don’t you love the name?) that would make Daylight Savings Time permanent passed the Senate in 2022 by unanimous consent, but died in the House of Representatives. However, the SPA was reintroduced this year in both houses of congress. Will it pass? Only time will tell.
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What about you, TKZers: Do you think we should go onto one time system and forget this switching back and forth? Does the time change have a negative impact on your work? Do you like the Common (i.e., average) Time idea?
Time is of the essence for Cassie Deakin and Frank White as they hunt a murderer.
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DST is stupid, annoying, odiferous and unhealthy.. Throws us off natural circadian rhythms just so people can do more shopping. But I could live with it if it’s permanent. The switching back and forth is what everybody hates. Not that I have an opinion, you understand.
Good morning, Jim. (Yawn)
I agree with everything you said. Maybe we should have a contest for the best adjective to describe the time switching. That could be eye-opening.
Have a great week and don’t take any car rides for a few days.
Like JSB, it’s the switching that bugs me. Pick one, stay with it.
(BTW, officially, it’s Daylight Saving Time–singular, not plural.)
Good morning Terry.
Although some people prefer Standard and others prefer DST, I suspect all of us would be happy if it was just one or the other.
My vote goes to stick with one or the other.
Living in the far north, the amount of daylight changes radically with the seasons. In deep winter, there are only about 7 hours of dim daylight b/c the sun is low on the horizon. Lots of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). In summer, we enjoy up to 18 hours of daylight and you’ll find me in the garden until 10:30-11 p.m.
Fascinating facts about time, Kay! Thanks for this great research!
Good morning, Debbie.
The farthest north we’ve lived is Wisconsin, but that was still a lot farther south than Kalispell. When we’ve traveled to Canada or Alaska in the summer, I remember how late the sun would set. And it wouldn’t just drop down like it does here. It would slide across the horizon like it just didn’t want to leave us in the dark.
Happy gardening!
I was grouchy all day yesterday because of the time change. And I’ll probably be the same way today. I’m with most people— make it one way or another, preferably Standard Time. But stop this switching back and forth.
Good morning, Patricia.
I know what you mean. Loss of sleep causes mood swings, and it makes me mad. 🙂
Have a good week.
Living in the PNW, just a couple hundred miles south of the Canadian border, I’d vote for standard time and stick with it. Early morning sunrise, and dark by 4:30-5:00pm.
Switching back and forth is like a never-ending volleyball game with no winner.
Happy Monday!
Good morning, Deb!
“Switching back and forth is like a never-ending volleyball game with no winner.” Well said. It’s time to end the game.
Have a great week.
70 miles south of the Canadian border here, and I’m with you on standard time!
Another vote for pick one and stick with it. I prefer standard time. It’s better aligns with our circadian rhythm. But, the twice early time change is the truly wrenching part. I’ve considered adjusting my morning schedule and giving up an hour of writing time first thing. I normally wake shortly before 6 a.m. and have 2 hours before my wife and I take our morning walk, breakfast and get on with our day. But I’m not sure I’m willing to give that up for eight months.
Morning, Dale.
DST used to be from April to October. Now it’s March to November. It’ll be interesting to see if Congress passes the SPA legislation which make DST permanent. I don’t know if making Standard time permanent is on the table, but I’m like you. Pick one and let’s stop the whiplash.
Have a good week!
It’s not the resetting of the clocks that bothers me. It’s the getting the ladders and setting them up and climbing them so that I can get to the clocks to change them that bothers me. And didn’t we just do this like 90 days ago? I say, pick one and stick with it. I don’t care which.
Ah yes. The time it takes to change the time of all the clocks in the house. On the (almost) bright side, we have 238 days before we have to do it again.
John, I know your background makes you an expert at climbing ladders, but please be careful.
Even though I live in a wonderfully sane state that doesn’t do DST, we’re still affected by all the other crazy states who keep flim-flamming back and forth in time and it’s a pain in the neck!
I’m definitely in the ranks of “Pick one and stick with it!”. 😎
It’s nice to know there are still sane states in the Union!
And TKZ is unanimously sane. “Pick one and stick with it!”
Have a great week, Brenda.
By the time I’ve reset all the clocks in the house to the new time, it’s time to change them again. Pick a time and stick with it. Given my druthers, I’d pick GMT. It would simplify my life if, when I’m trying to set up a meeting with someone, I didn’t need to know where that is in order to know when a meeting time is.
Another vote for a sane approach to time in the U.S. Thanks Bill!
You’re the first person to advocate the use of GMT, though. Now that would be interesting.
Have a good week.
I live in Arizona and we don’t change our clocks. (The reservations do though) I love it. No change in my sleeping schedule. I do have to change times for workshops and classes, but I can handle that. I like that I can stay on the same sleep time and work schedule with minor adjustments.
I never understood the ST and DT BS. it is hard on kids, animals, and, in the end, on you. Those time changes were a bear when you have to get kids off to school. And I hated having my sleep schedule messed up twice a year.
We need to pick a time and stick to it. I like you make it 1/2 way between the two. But is makes sense, so don’t expect it to happen. Politicians don’t seem to understand common sense.
Thanks for chiming in, BA. I think the state of Arizona could teach everyone a thing or two about common sense.
It seems the idea to stop the switching has caught hold, but taking the next step to a decision might take a while.