The US. Many of us were there.
ETA: It was terrible trying to get to school in inky darkness with freezing rain.
Daylight Saving Time should be abolished because it’s bad for us. That’s true far longer than the week or two it takes us to adjust mentally to it. And it’s not just my opinion; the American Academy of Sleep Medicine has called for a ban on DST.
Why? Well…
…a growing number of sleep experts say the act of moving our clocks forward in the spring is ruining our health. Studies over the last 25 years have shown the one-hour change disrupts body rhythms tuned to Earth’s rotation, adding fuel to the debate over whether having Daylight Saving Time in any form is a good idea.
“I’m one of the many sleep experts that knows it’s a bad idea,” said Dr. Elizabeth Klerman, a professor of neurology in the division of sleep medicine at Harvard Medical School.
“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.”
And…
Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Evanston, Illinois, also opposes Daylight Saving Time.
“Between March and November your body gets less morning light and more evening light, which can throw off your circadian rhythm,” she said.
Standard time, which we enter when we move our clocks back in the fall, is much closer to the sun’s day and night cycle, Zee said. This cycle has set our circadian rhythm, or body clock, for centuries.
The upshot is that DST is linked to a host of medical woes:
When our internal clocks are offset from the solar day-night cycle by even one hour we develop what sleep experts call “social jet lag.” Studies have shown social jet lag increases the risk of metabolic disorders such as diabetes, raises the risk of heart disease and stroke, worsens mood disorders such as depression, affects the digestive and endocrine systems and shortens our sleep duration. It can even reduce life expectancy.
It’s silly to change clocks because people don’t want to wait a month to be able to grill in the daylight, especially when it’s bad for all of us in so many ways.
Doreen already answered that with a cite, but thanks.
Thank you @Doreen, apparently I was too young to remember, though the gas lines (as a kid) I remember well.
Yes, in my vision people track the sunrise time just like they keep on eye on the weather for the next day or so; it would just become ingrained into our daily workflows.
And yes, hourly workers would probably need to have a prorated salary based on the season, getting paid a higher hourly wage for fewer hours in winter than in summer.
And, of course, this does disproportionately benefit non-shift workers, but I’ve got a whole 'nother crazy idea about shift workers that’s even more off topic.
Ultimately, this is a crazy idea that has no chance of getting any traction in the near future, so I’m free from having to even consider the thousands of problems this would cause.
But consider this – twice a year everyone bitches about DST, because we’re slaves to a clock. We plan almost every minute of our day around this clock, it controls our lives, and everyone seems to be stressed and depressed. This is a pipe dream, I readily acknowledge. If society were dedicated to making actual changes to how we live and work, though, I think this is a good option and one that is readily achievable despite the bumps.
I read your reply, and I understand what you’re saying. (and I’m not arguing, or disagreeing) But, the idea that people sleep and wake on such a set schedule is baffling to me. My evening routine certainly varies by 2 hours from day to day, and my morning does as well. Some days I have to be up by 6:00, other days I can sleep until 7:30 (or later if I wished. I seldom do)
The only reason DST made a blip this year is because it was on the same day I changed 3 time zones. So, a four-hour adjustment, and I did notice that.
To the larger point, although the time shift doesn’t bother me personally, I know it does bother a lot of people. And, I see no utility in it. In the great northwest, kids and adults go to and from in the dark for three months of the year anyway. For a couple of months, I only see my house in daylight on weekends.
I don’t bitch about it, because it’s a minor novelty for about an hour and then I get on with my day (and enjoy the extra light in the summer).
Abolish all time zones, daylight hours, leap years, hours, minutes, and seconds. Each locality can have government-specified office hours and agricultural seasons, updated as appropriate to reflect UTC drift.
As long as your work hours fall within sunrise/sunset, as long as farming season happens in the warm months, it shouldn’t matter in the slightest what those hours and months are actually called.
I wonder if we went to permanent DST, would there eventually be a movement to add another hour?
Yeah, with this global warming BS, they don’t have to do it uphill, both ways, through the snow!!!
We didn’t even get an onion on our belt, either!
Well, I have to press the “H” button in the car 23 times in the fall because it only advances the hour. 
I’ve always heard the rule of thumb for jet lag is an hour a day. Fly coast to coast, you’ll be adjusted to local time in three days. If that’s true, why does it take people a week to adjust to a one-hour time change?
…& if we MUST go to one year round, please let it be DST so that we can enjoy the daylight in the evenings after work!
Yeah. I know people prefer light in the evenings, but right now the medical consensus is that having our light in the morning is better for us. I prefer not waking up in the dark, but I know I have an advantage in going in flex time so standard time suits me for more often waking up when it’s light and getting home before it’s dark. I also don’t do outdoor activities during the week.
That said, for me personally, the time change is a minor inconvenience for a couple weeks, and whatever it’s doing to my health, I’m unaware of.
Not sure, it already stays light til past 10pm in June where I am.
I’m not one of them, but some people’s bodies wake them at a certain time even if they are still tired. My husband could have been awake until 4am - but he still would have woken up at 6:30. Except for a week or so around the time changes , when he wakes up somewhere in the hour between what used to be 6:30 and what currently is. He’s been retired for 2 months now and slept until 7:30 about 3 times.
When I was in High School in the 70s, I had to be out the door by 630 am to walk to the bus top, which was 2 blocks away. I did not need to be there by 630, bus arrival was 655, but teenagers will use any excuse to hang out with friends, etc. I do not think it was pitch black though, just not full daylight. The younger kids would start later than we did, so I know that they did not walk in the dark.
It’s not extra light. DST does not somehow magically create more hours of daylight, it discommodes 100% of us to juggle when those daylight hours occur in society’s arbitrarily defined schedule, which pleases a much smaller % of us so that they can grill a few more times a month after work or go on a longer bike ride. I think that it is the maniacal pursuit of kids’ after school sports that really drives it. Find a lit field to play on then and leave my circadian rhythm alone~we will all live longer.
It is such hubris for us to think that we know better with our westernized lifestyles than millions of years of evolution and nature.
At least pick one and stick with it.
I don’t agree that the reason “everyone” complains is because people are tied to a clock. Most of us are always going to be tied to some sort of clock. Most people who complain about the time changes are complaining about the change itself - they don’t want to get rid of clocks , they just don’t want to change them twice a year. A lot of people don’t even care if we stay on standard time or DST , just as long as it doesn’t change. Your idea is the equivalent of changing the clock every single day - it’s changing the time businesses and schools open and close and what times people work but it’s effectively no different that decreeing that sunrise = 6 am and changing the clock every day by a minute or two. Or actually twice a day, because sunset will also change.
Well, that’s possible. It was only in the U.S. as far as I know. Wikipedia article.
Congress enacted a trial period of year-round DST (P.L. 93-182), beginning January 6, 1974, and ending April 27, 1975.
Over three months from December to March, public support dropped from 79% to 42%.
I think the difference lies in the fact that jet lag involves flying between time zones, whereas social jet lag is about changing sleeping and waking patterns and work, social life, and school within the same time zone. time zone.
It takes most of us 5-7 days to adjust our sleeping and waking patterns. I’m sure some people take less time. When I was teaching, students were tired and more irritable through the Friday following the time change to DST. They were generally better the next week.
I disagree, in both cases your clock has changed by an hour, whether that’s because you moved or you stayed in the same place & the clock moved. If ‘social jet lag’ is a thing that means there a psychosomatic component to it.
Yup. This American agrees with you. The constant whining about it does get annoying.
I don’t understand why this is not the answer for everyone. I think the vast majority wants to have one time and never have to change our clocks. If you can remember back in time, you might remember that one of our presidents did argue for year round DST and it was a total failure as everyone hated going to work or school in the PITCH DARK for several weeks. And since it is pretty clear that it’s healthier for us to use standard time, why the heck don’t we do that?