DST
The Los Angeles Times posted their article from last year again on daylight saving time. They seem to be one of the only places really in support of the time change, considering most people hate this weekend where we lose an hour of sleep. I am one of those people, especially now when I just realized I’ll be losing an hour of sleep on an already dreaded Monday morning. Surprise! A seemingly unnecessary disruption during a winter season that appears to be endless.
Michael Hiltzik, who wrote the Los Angeles Times article, argues, “You think it’s disruptive to spring ahead or fall backward twice each year? Think about the adjustments you’d have to make if you lost an hour of that spring and summertime daylight.”
Knowing that time is a human construction, it seems to me that this is more of just another human occurance. If we have to spring forward, fine, let’s spring forward. But why can’t we stay that way? To me, gaining an hour of sleep isn’t a gift, because I know I’ll have to pay for it later when we’re forced to lose an hour in March.
Hiltzik ends his article like this: “The bottom line is this: Leave daylight saving time alone. You may have needed an extra cup of coffee this Monday morning, but that’s a small price to pay for the next eight months of more sunshine.”
I agree with him. I appreciate the extra months of sunshine, especially with an Iowa winter that has been persistent with cloudy skies. What I don’t understand is why we can’t stay sprung forward. I get that December houses the longest day of the year and we gain an hour of sleep to make up for that. But why does it matter if it’s lighter in the morning? If we stay sprung forward it will stay lighter in the evening longer during the winter months. That should matter more, especially if we are going along with Hiltzik and his argument that DST is meant for the 9-5 workforce.
Honestly, sunlight is way more meaningful to me at night when I get home from a long day of teaching. That’s when I get to enjoy it. Plus Hiltzik doesn’t even discuss how annoying it is to be driving with the sun staring straight into your eyeballs on the way to work. So, sure. Let’s spring forward, but let’s stay that way. DST in the long run feels cruel, because we let it end, only to bring it back again to further disrupt our routines. So, we should be more consistent. Let’s keep it. For good.