The Bane of Spring and Fall Called Daylight Saving Time

What does a workaholic hate? Probably, a lot of things, but inefficiency would be high on most of our lists. What screws us all up twice a year? Again, probably a lot of things for most people, but I mean a pre-planned one called 'daylight saving time'. One little hour that messes you up for up to a week to come. It also messes up many others...

Different studies attribute daylight saving time to different things such as increased car wrecks, heart attacks, and bad sleep(1). Most of these talk around the actual issue: daylight saving change messes up your circadian rhythm and causes sleep deprivation. It's like going to bed and waking up two months later as far as the position of the sun goes. Then you're tired and haggard for up to a week, or more depending on your work schedule, until your body readjusts. Tired people don't get as much done. Tired people cause accidents. Tired people are more prone to health risks(2). And about 1 in 3 Americans are already sleep deprived before the time change even happens(3).

This isn't anything new about this. Stories have been published online about this subject for as long as the internet has been around(4). It's just the exact details of what/how that are open for debate and there are few things that would fix the DST issue once the details are decided on. My favorite 'fix' includes throwing all clocks away(5) without regard for the fact that means throwing away nearly all trappings of modern life, including the internet and everything on it, but most people just want to dump DST(6).

Any attempts to fix the problem has to partially address the only use DST has, providing additional morning light for school children, and do away with the twice a year wrench that is thrown into peoples' schedules at the same time. Which is probably why the problem still exists. Or more specifically, I think it still exists because it seems people view it as an all in or all out thing. They're looking at an hour instead of something else...like 30 minutes. Splitting the difference to move the clock by half an hour and leaving it would be as close to the best of both worlds as possible while doing away with disruptions caused by two forced changes in circadian rhythm every year. I've been preaching this idea for a couple years to people and am starting to see it show up on the internet here and there as it dawns on others. But no matter what is done with DST, modern society has been burdened long enough with an archaic leftover of the past when there is nothing to support its existence(7).

1. Daylight saving time: Research on health, car accidents and energy usage: https://journalistsresource.org/studi...
2. 10 Things to Hate About Sleep Loss: https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders...
3. 1 in 3 adults don’t get enough sleep: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/20...
4. Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
5. Possible Solutions To Daylight Savings Time: https://medium.com/@WhiteFeather9/pos...
6. Can We Fix Daylight-Saving Time for Good?: https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals...
7. The 5 Reasons To Keep Daylight Saving Time Have No Science To Back Them Up: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswi...