Maybe now it’s safe for me to say it without getting laughed at.
Home from errands this morning, where he’d seen a friend he stopped to chat with, Husband informed me, “Well, you were right all along.” Then he related how research has determined that adjusting to adjusting to DST is bad for your health.
I don’t think it takes a genius to figure it out personally, but to make any global difference we first need the convincing stats.
So before relaying any information here, I came online to double-check it, but I had no trouble believing the data Husband reported.
DST. It sounds like a disease in itself, don’t you think? I refer, of course, to Daylight Saving Time (which might be better labeled SLT for Sleep Loss Time), when we move the indicator on our watches and clocks ahead one hour, thus losing, not saving, it! (Nor do we save, or gain, an hour in the fall, but merely reinstate the one we stole from spring, and still lose productivity because our bodies must readjust their sense of what time it is and establish a new rhythm again.)
Now scientific research is showing clearly that the DST time change does indeed increase incidence of stroke by 8% in the general population in the two days following the it—and higher in special groups like cancer victims (a whopping 25%) and the elderly (20%). Previous research already indicated that it ups the risk of heart attack by 10%.
I’m sure it does a lot of other damage via work-related injuries, auto accidents, and mistakes in medication dosage, and it’s bound to lower productivity as millions of people get thrown totally out of sync with themselves and worsen their already abysmal sleep deficits! I wonder really, how many huge errors are made, how much money is lost, even how many lives are forfeited by this nonsense.
I have long chafed over the issue. But no official organizations I know of except the governments of Arizona and Hawaii have had the sense to abolish it. Those of you who like to make your voices heard, here’s an issue worth your shout. You may save lives, jobs, companies, who knows…?
As for me, I intend this year just to ignore the whole thing as much as possible. I have the distinct advantage of being retired, and the additional blessing of a wristwatch which either broke down a month ago or ran down its battery which I haven’t bothered to go out and replace.
In past years I usually turned my watch dial—and as many household clocks as I could get away with—an hour ahead weeks before the official time change to let myself adjust slowly. Now I’m just going to let my body tell me when to get up, eat, go to bed, the whole nine yards.
But what about all the poor people who have to jump out of bed an hour earlier on Monday morning, their bodies shocked by the shift and their waking brains thrown into confusion? My own heart almost starts beating faster just to think about it.
Of course this makes me think of how the traditions of man can never improve upon the plans and laws of God—like gravity, you know…, and how the glorious human body, so “fearfully and wonderfully made,” was designed to function in harmony with its own internal “clock,” and not be “digitally remastered.”
“For so He gives His beloved sleep.” -Psalm 127:2
I absolutely love daylight saving time! It’s one if the few areas in life where the entire population has agreed to change their schedules to my convenience, allowing me more hours of daylight after work to get things done around the farm, or to enjoy riding horses. All I can say is, “Thank you one and all! I sure do appreciate it!” 🙂
Well, how about this for my first comment!
Do you love the back-and-forth change, Joe, or the DST schedule itself? I wouldn’t mind at all if we just stuck to the one or the other, and actually I think I prefer the one we’ll be using for the next 8+ months. It’s this crazy shifting back and forth that gets me! How about if we just don’t change back in the fall anymore? Then people would be keeping their schedules to your convenience all the time, wouldn’t they? And I’d be happy, too!
And now I’m thinking maybe I ought to edit this post a bit by inserting the important word(s) “change,” and “adjustment”…
Thanks, Joe, for your two cent’s worth, and free! (smile)
I would be okay with DST year-round. However, I also don’t mind the change, for the sake of those who want to see a bit of winter sunrise before starting their work-day during the low-sunlight months.
I look at the time change as one more thing to mark the changing of the seasons…and something I look forward to each spring. 🙂
Thanks, Joe, for more to think about. You’re giving me a different, more positive view of this time change thing, and seeing the positive in anything is always beneficial.
I have just read also that one reason against keeping DST all year is the safety issue with kids having to wait for school busses in the dark. Yike! Never thought of that.
Meanwhile, this year I am experiencing the easiest adjustment I think I’ve ever had to “turn your clocks forward.” Of course not having to run off to an outside job now makes a huge difference, and I’ve just been able to let my physical self tell me when to sleep, get up, eat, etc. It’s great, and so far I’m not noticing any energy lag at all.
Oh my goodness, Sylvie. I LOVE DST (though I’ve never heard it called that). When we were in Scotland one summer, it didn’t get dark till nearly midnight. Loved it! So in America (at least where we live) during DST, darkness comes far earlier–maybe 9 pm at most. When I worked full-time, there was nothing I disliked more than driving to and from work in the dark. It was depressing. I worked in a place where I really couldn’t take a lunchtime promenade either (not a great neighborhood). Daylight Saving Time seems to stretch time for me . . . more time after dinner to take a leisurely stroll with my husband, walk the dog, visit with neighborhoods, watch children play. People actually need sunlight and vitamin D, and I think DST, as you call this disease :-), actually helps foster that–and fosters more exercise, too. And I wouldn’t doubt that it helps with depression. While I putter at night and am not opposed to the dark, in some ways, it’s like a little death (and going to bed is practice for that–I’ve heard that too. :-). Anyway, please don’t take it away. Very interesting post, though, and the attached article was enlightening.
xxoo
Lynni
I read what you wrote to Joe. I don’t mind not switching, but I’d keep it at double daylight as we did once in St. Louis. But then officials feared children waiting in the dark at school-bus stops.
Goodness! I somehow seem to have given the impression that I don’t like light!! Nothing could be further from the truth. That’s one reason I get up to see the sunrise: not to miss any of the daylight hours. What I mind is man-made procedures that yank the general population from one time pattern to the other, willy-nilly, to the detriment of their bodily good.
Alas, I’ve even changed this blog post’s title now, but I don’t suppose that will make any difference. I didn’t mean to stir such great debate. I’ll just pull the post after a couple days. It’s not that important. Just my own desire for stability, I guess.
No, no, don’t pull it! It’s a good post, and we love dialogue. As I said, I found the article interesting. I’ve never heard of this, so please keep it up!!
Okay, Lynni, I hear you. I love dialog, too, and getting differing views and the insights that come with them. This week just wasn’t a good time for me to unthinkingly introduce something that could so easily invite debate, even light-hearted. Certain people near my life have been engaged in an extra-heated, warlike verbal combat which is very disturbing to me. I know this isn’t the same thing going on here, with either you or Joe. It just reminded me of it in a distant way, and I would rather I’d left debatable topics for a less rattling time.
Lynni, what’s “double daylight”?
I find good things about DST and I find bad things about it. GOOD THINGS: I like the daylight in the mid to late evening. It helps the farmers get their fields tended to. We can enjoy our outdoors later in the day. BAD THINGS: I find myself to be more tired and run down. I can’t seem to wake up when the alarm goes off and tend to sleep later, all because the alarm rings earlier. I don’t care for the darkness of the early morning.
We live in Indiana. Our state gave into the Daylight Savings Time ten years ago. At that time I worked with a woman who came here from Michigan. She said she liked DST. I had to tell her I didn’t because of the darkness at my hour of rising. We still remained friends until I came away from that job and for a while after.
Hi Cecelia,
It’s 6:30 PM as I write this, and what lovely light there is outside my window! You are right about that good part of DST. I love having that early evening time to hang around outside in my garden or elsewhere once the weather warms. Like you, however, I also find the time change usually leaves me feeling draggy and tired. This year I decided to try harder to get the sleep that otherwise went missing. One thing I’ve been doing this week is sleeping what looks like an hour later than usual in the morning (but which, of course, isn’t really). This ended up making me aware of the biggest disadvantage of the spring forward, for me. I found that sleeping later according to the clock cut out my first hour with God, because my husband is a faithful keeper of the time change and we have to meet at 7 to get the day’s plans in sync. Hm. Haven’t decided what to do. Give up the morning sleep, I guess. And come November, I think I might try doing like my neighbor who never turns her watch or personal clocks back, but just keeps DST for the three months of winter and adjusts for outside appointments, etc.
I never realized till I wrote this how strongly people feel about this “issue” especially the ones who love DST, including the change. But it certainly shouldn’t be something that separates friends, should it! Thanks for adding your comment. It adds a balance here, methinks!