# Time to change the clocks **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 26, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540 "2014-10-26T04:02:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/41 "2014-10-30T04:22:11Z")
I just changed mine to 1998. All my shit is good now. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/42 "2014-10-30T06:04:19Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Well fuck. Here we go again with the annual “don’t change the clocks!” thread. Mostly written by people who live nearer the equator and don’t get that it makes a huge difference to people in different latitudes. Here in Ottawa, it’s rather nice to arrive at work when the sun is above the horizon. Without daylight saving time kids would be going to school in complete blackness. Not really a good idea from a safety perspective. Give it some thought this year before bitching, please. Do you want your kids being out until the sun rises at 8:40 AM? Of course not. Can’t they change school hours, or are they written in stone? ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/43 "2014-10-30T10:39:45Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > What about places that have 15/45 minute offsets? They’re just being deliberately difficult and deserve a wedgie plus an ear-flick. But since they’re mostly Nepali best to leave them alone - khukris and Joanna Lumley are both scary. > [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > Yep. I once lived in the upper latitudes in a place that didn’t observe the time change. Try waking up at 3:00am to take a leak, with dawn clearly breaking, and not being able to fall asleep. Jesus that sucked. Blackout blinds are your friend. Here, even **with** the clock change, in June the sun pops over the horizon at 0330. Civil twilight is at 0130. In december the sun rises at 0900 and sets at 1430. It’s dark from 1540 to 0800. The DST, it does nothing! ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2014, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/44 "2014-10-30T22:24:00Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Blackout blinds are your friend. Blackout blinds are your mom’s pervy second cousin. Lining your windows with aluminum foil, that’s your BFFL. ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/45 "2014-11-01T20:37:39Z")
I have a solution everyone can be happy with. Rather than spring forward fall back it should be spring back fall back. Twice a year we set our clocks back an hour. After twelve years we gain a whole day which will be added to the calender as October 32nd. Two Halloweens!!! This makes equally as much sense as the way it is now and it’s more fun. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/46 "2014-11-02T00:12:07Z")
bump ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/47 "2014-11-02T02:27:34Z")
I was so happy about the extra hour, until I realized the baby doesn’t read clocks and will now wake me up at 5:30 on the dot. Thanks, nature! As for the time, nobody wants the sun to set before work gets out. Kids don’t even walk to school anymore, so screw them. Keep summer time. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/48 "2014-11-02T03:10:52Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Can’t they change school hours, or are they written in stone? They’re pretty well set in stone. Move school hours to be later and you screw over parents who can longer get their kids to school before they have to leave for work. Even if they can shift their hours (and I would guess that the majority of people can’t), they’re still going to go through exactly the same shift to their sleep schedules that apparently is causing people to drop dead, so you haven’t actually changed anything. ---
**Author:** ![DJ\_Motorbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90ced4/32.png) [@DJ\_Motorbike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DJ_Motorbike)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/49 "2014-11-02T05:32:22Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > They’re pretty well set in stone. Move school hours to be later and you screw over parents who can longer get their kids to school before they have to leave for work. Even if they can shift their hours (and I would guess that the majority of people can’t), they’re still going to go through exactly the same shift to their sleep schedules that apparently is causing people to drop dead, so you haven’t actually changed anything. Set the clock .half an hour in between and fucking leave it there forever. If you’re still worried little Suzi is going to be eaten by a grue while waiting for the school bus either introduce the concept of electric lighting to the medieval village you inhabit or move north or south accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/50 "2014-11-02T06:06:41Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > However, even though DST is an annoyance, it would be a very minor one if only everybody would get with the program and do it ON THE SAME DAMN DATE. So noogies to the US and Australia for doing it on stupid dates and extra noogies to Arizona for not doing it at all and therefore making life even more annoying. It’s not annoying to us Arizonans. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/51 "2014-11-02T08:50:36Z")
Since we’re just telling jokes now, let me relate my old pet peeve. When California sprung ahead from 1AM to 2AM, liquor sales were cut off an hour early. But when it fell back from 2AM to 1AM, there was no extra hour of liquor sales to compensate. :rolleyes: This had no effect on me – I seldom bought liquor at all, let alone at 1 AM – but it struck me as the sort of unnecessary government control many find annoying. Whichever way the rule went would have trivial impact, but why did it default to _more_ restrictive? At some point I guess, U.S.A. chose to spring from 2 AM to 3 AM, rather than from 1 AM to 2 AM. Did they do that just to avoid my objection? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/52 "2014-11-02T09:28:51Z")
If California started Daylight Saving Time in the spring at 1 AM, it must have been before 1967. The Uniform Time Act mandated the time of 2 AM local time to set the clocks one hour ahead in the spring and one hour back in the fall for all states that observe DST. > **[Uniform Time Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Time_Act)** > > The Uniform Time Act of 1966, Pub. L. 89–387, 80 Stat. 107, enacted April 13, 1966, was a Law of the United States to "promote the adoption and observance of uniform time within the standard time zones" prescribed by the Standard Time Act of 1918. Its intended effect was to simplify the official pattern of where and when daylight saving time (DST) is applied within the U.S. Prior to this law, each state had its own scheme for when DST would begin and end, and in some cases, which parts of the... ---
**Author:** ![Kiros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/439d5e/32.png) [@Kiros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiros)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/53 "2014-11-02T23:24:22Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Can’t they change school hours, or are they written in stone? The evidence keeps mounting year after year that they should be pushing school start times later by at least an hour and probably two (for a lot of places that start before 8am). For middle and high school aged students especially, but 9 or 9:30 across the board would be better than 7:45 from a sleep/development prospective. Might actually have a chance of happening if commute times continue to become more and more flexible. As for DST, eh, I’d rather have it always on. Which is to say I’d prefer the extra hour in the evening rather than the morning. I don’t get too worked up about it, though; I just enjoy one weekend in the fall an extra little bit and whine about the lost sleep for one in the spring. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540/54 "2014-11-03T12:17:55Z")
Twice a year i rejoice I am no longer with my first husband. Spring or fall he would go on a rant and not want the clocks changed. I would wear my watch constantly and rely on it being correct to the rest of the world. About a week or 10 days later i would change the clocks to match my watch and he’d come home and complain a bit but not scream at me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/time-to-change-the-clocks/702540.md?page=2)