Daylight Saving Time — Blog

DST blues

Another March, another move of the clock one hour forwards just so we can enjoy some modicum of sunlight past 6:00PM. Losing an hour on Sunday absolutely sucks, and the following workweek to come is even worse. At least on the Sunday of time change you can sleep in a bit to ward off the DST-induced “jet lag”; no such luck on Monday!

Good news for me is I typically wake up way earlier than I really need to for work. Therefore I have the option of sleeping in a little, if waking what is effectively one hour earlier than usual proves to be too challenging. I understand that most people are not like me, so ruined sleep patterns for the rest of you it is! At least for the first week after the clock change anyways.

I am going to keep complaining about daylight saving time until the powers at be get rid of it. I don’t care which timezone configuration they use: just pick one and stick to it! Why must we torture ourselves for two days out of the year voluntarily? I’ve yet to meet a single person who actually likes it when we forward or retard the clock on hour.

Since I’m a morning person, I actually would prefer we keep constant standard time, as opposed to always daylight saving time. My circadian rhythm is better suited to an early sunrise and early sunset. I hate it during the summer when the sun is still up past 8:00 PM, delaying the signals to my body that it’s time to wind it down. Again, I realize I’m in the minority here. I bet if there’s a public vote on which of the two to keep forever, daylight saving time would win.

But please, no more changing the clock. Pick one!

DST can go die

I keep saying this, and I’ll keep on doing so until they stop: I hate changing the clock for Daylight Saving Time. Would the powers at be just pick one time and stick with it for the whole year? Why are we voluntarily giving ourselves essentially jet lag for no good reason? The agony is especially acute in the Spring, during which we lose an hour of time on that Sunday. I felt horrible yesterday, even though I did the same as I usually do every Sunday.

It’s going the greatest of day when congress passes a law mandating either we keep DST or standard time forever, and never changing back.

Until then, the best we can do is cope with the difficulties. Even though today is a work day, I still woke up at the same time before changing the clock forwards. I can afford to do this because my normal wakeup time is well before when I have to actually get ready for work. When the alarm rings, it isn’t the ultimatum like it is for most people. The snooze button isn’t some penalty I am going to have to pay for later. This freedom is rather nice, though obviously I also go to sleep earlier to compensate.

Instead of forcing myself to wake up at this “new” time, I’m going to slowly allow my body to acquiesce. I’m not going to set an alarm; whenever I wake up is whenever I shall wake up. There’s no need to set a backstop alarm, because I would have to oversleep for over two hours before I’d have to begin panicking about getting to work on time.

This begs the question: why set an alarm at all? If I have such freedom of hours before I have to get ready for work, why not “naturally” wake everyday? Surely it’s better than being rudely interrupted by an alarm. I reckon this is worth exploring.