# If no more clock changing why freeze in DAYLIGHT time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2023, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105 "2023-03-13T11:39:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![vbob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vbob/32/4439_2.png) [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/101 "2023-03-13T23:54:26Z")
While I’m intrigued by the notions proposed for inventing artificial daylight, wouldn’t it be simpler to adjust the length of an hour according to the seasons? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/102 "2023-03-14T00:19:59Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > shift work disorder. Dad was in the FAA. His weekly schedule was: 16:00 - 24:00 14:00 - 22:00 12:00 - 20:00 05:30 - 13:30 and then back on at 00:00 - 0800. It was rough. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/103 "2023-03-14T00:48:50Z")
Now _that_ is simply abusive. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/104 "2023-03-14T02:15:51Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > While I’m intrigued by the notions proposed for inventing artificial daylight, wouldn’t it be simpler to adjust the length of an hour according to the seasons? **Really?** So, when I say “I’ll see you in an hour,” it means a different length of time depending on what month it is? Would you have to print all new cookbooks that are month-centric? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/105 "2023-03-14T02:17:10Z")
BTW, there was a huge thread on this subject not too long ago: > [@Daylight Savings Time: Why is the US congress split on this matter](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/daylight-savings-time-why-is-the-us-congress-split-on-this-matter/974456): > > As most know Daylight Savings ends a few hours from now (November 6 at 2a). My question is, congress has seemed to consider ending it for a while now. It seems universally popular to end. So, why doesn’t it end? Is there some political bloc that really wants it one way or another? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/106 "2023-03-14T02:24:01Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > So, when I say “I’ll see you in an hour,” it means a different length of time depending on what month it is? Time isn’t holding up. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/107 "2023-03-14T02:47:02Z")
It just keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ into the future. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/108 "2023-03-14T02:51:58Z")
> [@vbob](#): > > While I’m intrigued by the notions proposed for inventing artificial daylight, wouldn’t it be simpler to adjust the length of an hour according to the seasons? It’s been done. They decided it wasn’t for them: > **[Roman timekeeping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_timekeeping)** > > In Roman timekeeping, a day was divided into periods according to the available technology. Initially, the day was divided into two parts: the ante meridiem (before noon) and the post meridiem (after noon). With the advent of the sundial circa 263 BC, the period of the natural day from sunrise to sunset was divided into twelve hours. > An hour was defined as one twelfth of the daytime, or the time elapsed between sunset and sunrise. Since the duration varied with the seasons, this also meant that ... ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/109 "2023-03-14T05:13:27Z")
If people are so concerned about their kids going to school in the dark with year round DST, why not start the school day later (and even working hours later)? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/110 "2023-03-14T05:25:40Z")
But, in our current system, that’s what the period of standard time _is_. A collective agreement to do everything an hour later, relative to the majority of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/111 "2023-03-14T06:01:32Z")
Obviously it would be silly to move the clocks by an hour and also move all our schedules by an hour. But I think the suggestion is just to move the school hours during Standard Time. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/112 "2023-03-14T17:03:53Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I get up at the same time every day of the year, even if I don’t set my alarm. It is always already light out. And I go to bed way after it gets dark. An hour either way makes no difference whatsoever. Don’t know where you’re living (you don’t have your location in your avatar) or what times you get up and go to bed; but there are large numbers of people for whom it doesn’t work that way. I’m somewhat puzzled that you can read this thread and not realize that. > [@Dinsdale](#): > > I sure haven’t seen anyone point out these horrible repercussions from changing the clocks. Multiple times in this thread; including about half a dozen posts before you (as well, I note, as also after you): > [@Seanette](#): > > I’ve seen credible research about upswings in medical issues such as strokes and heart attacks and in car crashes around the switchover. It’s not just a trivial nuisance, it’s an actual health/safety problem. > [@nelliebly](#): > > I now predict we’ll still be arguing about this in a year’s time. There, I suspect, is something we can all agree with. > [@eschrodinger](#): > > I’m in favor of year round Standard Time, but my second choice is to just pick one and stick to it. That’s my vote also. > [@vbob](#): > > While I’m intrigued by the notions proposed for inventing artificial daylight, wouldn’t it be simpler to adjust the length of an hour according to the seasons? And everybody’s workday becomes drastically longer in the summer than in the winter, leaving little or no time for sleep or anything else if one lives far north enough? That’s not going to go over well at all. – yes, I suppose every business and government office could adjust their clock times every now and then; but I don’t see how that’s any simpler, and unless there’s a uniform law stating how they had to do that it would be a whole lot more complicated. And even if there were you’d have to rewrite all the overtime laws, which wouldn’t be simple at all. > [@beowulff](#): > > Would you have to print all new cookbooks that are month-centric? Ay yi yi. Not to mention everything else that requires timing; some of which requires timing a lot more precise than cooking generally does. You’d have to re-define minutes and seconds and components of them so they no longer had anything to do with the length of hours. > [@Riemann](#): > > I think the suggestion is just to move the school hours during Standard Time. A lot of people have the timing of their work lives coordinated around their kids’ school hours. You’d either have to move the hours also of a lot of businesses (presumably each of them individually), or upend a lot of people’s lives. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/113 "2023-03-14T17:08:41Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’m somewhat puzzled that you can read this thread and not realize that. I’m not puzzled that there exist some people who are affected by the time change. I _totally_ disagree with the assertion that, as I already quoted: > “Your body clock stays with (natural) light not with the clock on your wall,” Klerman said. “And there’s no evidence that your body fully shifts to the new time.” ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/114 "2023-03-14T17:20:42Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I’m not puzzled that there exist some people who are affected by the time change. I _totally_ disagree with the assertion that, as I already quoted: > > > “Your body clock stays with (natural) light not with the clock on your wall,” Klerman said. “And there’s no evidence that your body fully shifts to the new time.” Why? I can see that this may not be a factor that affects you. But why are you so certain that what Klerman said isn’t true for anybody? Have you done research into the matter, or have cites you can show? (And I still don’t see why its always being light when you personally get up in the morning has anything to do with the matter.) ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/115 "2023-03-14T17:24:52Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > But why are you so certain that what Klerman said isn’t true for anybody? 🤨 I _didn’t_ say it wasn’t true for anybody. The quote says “there’s no evidence.” Well there damn sure is evidence, which is that I get up at the same time everyday. And I mentioned it being light out because, again, the quote says that your body’s clock stays with the natural light. So why doesn’t every person always wake up when the sun rises? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/116 "2023-03-14T17:25:17Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > can see that this may not be a factor that affects you. But why are you so certain that what Klerman said isn’t true for anybody? Have you done research into the matter, or have cites you can show? In that quote Klerman is not saying it’s true for some people - she’s saying it’s true across the board. Which as just as inaccurate as saying it affects no one. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/117 "2023-03-14T17:28:19Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I think the suggestion is just to move the school hours during Standard Time. California just did something like this, only all year. Every school had to start between 30 minutes and an hour later this year. Some bullshit about how teens need more sleep. I reserve judgement, but I anticipate that the impact due to sports will cause the state to reverse itself before too long. Personally, I have zero problems with the twice-yearly switch. Doesn’t bother me at all. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/118 "2023-03-14T17:35:03Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > The quote says “there’s no evidence.” Well there damn sure is evidence, which is that I get up at the same time everyday. That isn’t evidence at all, because you say it’s always light out. – wait a minute, are you saying that the morning after the clocks change, you always automatically wake up, with no alarm, at the same clock time, even though that’s an hour later or earlier than you woke up every day for months before? That is really weird. And in any case, it isn’t evidence, unless the quote is taken to mean ‘this applies to every single person on the planet’; which I doubt would be a safe thing to say about much of anything. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I mentioned it being light out because, again, the quote says that your body’s clock stays with the natural light. So why doesn’t every person always wake up when the sun rises? Three reasons, at least: one being that people vary, and the effect’s going to be stronger in some people than others; another being that degree of tiredness and amount of earlier sleep that night varies, and being sufficiently tired can override the effect; and three being that most people in modern life get so much artificial light at various times when the sun’s down, and/or sleep with curtains pulled so that they don’t get much light from the sunrise, that the effect is diluted. > [@silenus](#): > > Some bullshit about how teens need more sleep. I think there’s actually quite a bit of research on that. Whether it overwhelms other reasons for the timing may be a question. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/119 "2023-03-14T17:41:01Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Three reasons, at least: one being that people vary, and the effect’s going to be stronger in some people than others; another being that degree of tiredness and amount of earlier sleep that night varies, and being sufficiently tired can override the effect; and three being that most people in modern life get so much artificial light at various times when the sun’s down, and/or sleep with curtains pulled so that they don’t get much light from the sunrise, that the effect is diluted. So then you too disagree with that quote. I really have no idea why you seem to be taking me disagreeing that that quote is true for _every single person_ with some kind of attack on you. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105/120 "2023-03-14T17:45:36Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > So then you too disagree with that quote. I didn’t take it to apply equally to everybody, but to apply only to the people who do have a significant problem with time shifts. I haven’t read the entire work in question, so I don’t know which way it was meant. > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I really have no idea why you seem to be taking me disagreeing that that quote is true for _every single person_ with some kind of attack on you. I have no idea why you think that I think you’re attacking me. I don’t. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-no-more-clock-changing-why-freeze-in-daylight-time/981105.md?page=7)