# The stupidity of time!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 3, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502 "2000-05-03T23:35:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@BELASCO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BELASCO)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2000, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502/1 "2000-05-03T23:35:05Z")
Ok, One fine day I was doing nothing and having very much time on my hands when I thought “Why is 12:00a.m the middle of the night?” Wouldn’t it be the very first of the morning? This seems totaly rediculouse(whatever) to me. When you wake up, that is morning. When you fall asleap, it is at night, for at least 3-4 hours. Why is this time system so screwed up? Can’t the middle of the night start around 4:30 am instead? Have 12:00am replace 4:30am. was time always this randomly set into any loose frame?
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### Author:  [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2000, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502/2 "2000-05-04T01:06:01Z")
It’s a little hard to be sure what you’re asking, but it seems you want to know why each calendar day begins at midnight.
It seems to me that it’s so that people sleep through the transition. That way, you rarely have to worry that you’re not sure whether today is today or maybe it’s tomorrow already.
Of course, with the 'round the clock culture we’ve got now, it doesn’t matter as much. Now, it’s not uncommon for someone to mention that they’re having a great Friday night and some bozo always has to point out that it’s 12:04, so they’re actually having a great Saturday morning.
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### Author:  [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2000, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502/3 "2000-05-04T01:10:05Z")
Perhaps noon was set as the time when the sun was almost directly overhead, and midnight the opposite? That might be the origin of the system, anyway. Is the sun at the zenith at noon and nadir at midnight, no matter what the season, while sunset and sunup vary?
Or are we talking about what hour the “middle of the night” refers to as a phrase as opposed to our sleeping habits?
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### Author:  [@Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gilligan)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2000, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502/4 "2000-05-04T01:30:13Z")
“Midnight” makes sense; it is pretty much the midpoint of darkness, regardless of the season. Babylonian civilization began the day at sunrise, Hebrew civilization at sunset. The Romans began it at midnight; I suppose we just inherited this along with their calendar.
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### Author:  [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2000, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502/5 "2000-05-04T03:43:45Z")
a.m. stands for ante meridian.
p.m. stands for post meridian.
They basically mean before and after noon. 12:01 a.m. is closer to the next noon than the previous.
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### Author:  [@VaHermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VaHermit)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2000, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidity-of-time/18502/6 "2000-05-04T10:09:45Z")
Saltire has a valid point. I work from 4 pm till 2:30 am. My girlfriend goes to work at 3 am and usually calls me before I go to bed. Anytime I mention something that happened “today” she says “you mean yesterday”, and if I ask her what shes going to do tomorrow, she says “you mean today?”. I try to explain that to me it’s going to be today until I go to bed and wake up…then it will be my tomorrow and I will have caught up with her today. Confusing as hell.