# US and Canadian Dopers: Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 5, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384 "2009-03-05T14:35:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/1 "2009-03-05T14:35:33Z")
Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday in the US and Canada. I’m going to be getting up when it’s dark again ☹ I’m not sure I like this new earlier Daylight Saving Time. OTOH, it will be light until later in the evening, and that’s always good. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/2 "2009-03-05T15:37:08Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Daylight Saving Time starts this Sunday in the US and Canada. > > I’m going to be getting up when it’s dark again ☹ I’m not sure I like this new earlier Daylight Saving Time. OTOH, it will be light until later in the evening, and that’s always good. Uhhhh… Won’t there be **light** when you wake up for the next 8 months or so?? For example, if you usually wake up at 7 A.M., it will now be 8 A.M., and therefore there should be more light, not less. Am I missing something? ETA: Oh, sorry… I see you’re from Pittsburgh! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/3 "2009-03-05T15:44:40Z")
> [@omni-not](#): > > Uhhhh… Won’t there be **light** when you wake up for the next 8 months or so?? For example, if you usually wake up at 7 A.M., it will now be 8 A.M., and therefore there should be more light, not less. > > Am I missing something? I think you have it conceptually reversed. We spring ahead; 2 AM becomes 3 AM. 3 becomes 4, 4 becomes 5. If I wake up at 7 AM, I will be waking up at a time that used to be SIX AM. It’ll be darker than it would have been had DST not happened, because if DST had not happened I’d be waking up an hour later. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/4 "2009-03-05T15:50:30Z")
Except for here in Saskatchewan. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/5 "2009-03-05T15:54:33Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I think you have it conceptually reversed. > > We spring ahead; 2 AM becomes 3 AM. 3 becomes 4, 4 becomes 5. If I wake up at 7 AM, I will be waking up at a time that used to be SIX AM. It’ll be darker than it would have been had DST not happened, because if DST had not happened I’d be waking up an hour later. Rick… I said if you USUALLY wake up at 7 A.M., meaning if you wake up at 7 A.M. now, come Sunday it will be 8 A.M. and therefore there should be more light. Or am I conceptually reversing, again?😉 ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/6 "2009-03-05T16:06:17Z")
Suppose you wake up every day at 7:00 AM local time - be that Daylight or Standard, whichever is in effect. Also suppose that, this time of year, the sun rises at about 7:00 AM _Standard Time_ where you live. Next Sunday we’ll all move our clocks forwards by one hour. At 7:00 Standard Time they will all read 8:00 (Daylight Time), and we’ll think of it as “Eight o’clock.” After the switch, the sun will still come up at 7:00 Standard Time, of course - it neither knows nor cares that we’ve all agreed to move our clocks. But we’ve all shifted to Daylight Time - at sunrise our clocks now read 8:00 AM, and you’ve been up for an hour already. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/7 "2009-03-05T16:07:45Z")
I, for one, _love_ DST. I don’t care about it being dark in the morning, because I get up before sunrise anyway. I love having time to play with my kids in the yard, grilling, etc. after work. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/8 "2009-03-05T16:25:23Z")
I’m actually looking forward to it this year. I tried to go for a run after I got home from work yesterday and I had to stop halfway through. The sun was going down and it was getting way too cold. It was colder on Saturday but at least the sun was out. ---
**Author:** ![Jayn\_Newell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jayn\_Newell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayn_Newell)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/9 "2009-03-05T16:28:06Z")
Here’s hoping that my new computer can handle the change–my last one was an hour behind all summer 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/10 "2009-03-05T16:34:47Z")
> [@omni-not](#): > > Rick… I said if you USUALLY wake up at 7 A.M., meaning if you wake up at 7 A.M. now, come Sunday it will be 8 A.M. and therefore there should be more light. > > Or am I conceptually reversing, again?😉 You’ve got it backwards. We know the sun sets later after Daylight Saving Time starts. Therefore, since the length of time the sun is actually up isn’t changing, it must rise later, too. I looked up the times for sunrises for Pittsburgh, and the sunrise goes from being at 6:44 AM on March 7 to 7:43 AM on March 8. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/11 "2009-03-05T16:42:20Z")
> [@omni-not](#): > > Rick… I said if you USUALLY wake up at 7 A.M., meaning if you wake up at 7 A.M. now, come Sunday it will be 8 A.M. and therefore there should be more light. If you wake up at 8 AM instead of 7, there will be exactly as much light as there was the day before at 7 AM, so you will not be any further ahead. (Well, there will be a minute or so more because the days are getting longer, but that’s not because of DST.) But starting Monday, you’ll have less light. I’m presuming most people have to keep waking up at the same time on the clock. ---
**Author:** ![omni-not](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8dc957/32.png) [@omni-not](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omni-not)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/12 "2009-03-05T17:37:07Z")
I’ll probably dream about this all night ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/13 "2009-03-05T17:38:50Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m presuming most people have to keep waking up at the same time on the clock. I do on mornings when I have to go to work. ---
**Author:** ![mkecane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@mkecane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mkecane)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/14 "2009-03-05T18:56:00Z")
I’m sure it’s too embedded in our collective unconsciousness to change, but the term _Daylight Savings_ doesn’t seem to fit anymore. Before, when it was standard time from mid-Oct to late March (early April?), the standard was roughly 5-6 months long. Now that it’s early Nov. to early March, the standard is barely 5 months long. Shouldn’t the standard be 7 months, and we could make up a new term for the clocks between Nov and March? Evening savings? I don’t have a good name, and daylight losses is too negative and would surely confuse people more. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/15 "2009-03-05T21:18:01Z")
I was just getting used to it being lighter in the morning…I would have blanked on this weekend if not for them announcing the change in Mass schedules starting Saturday. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/16 "2009-03-05T21:20:17Z")
> [@mkecane](#): > > but the term _Daylight Savings_ doesn’t seem to fit anymore To be fair, it never fit. Because the term is “daylight saving”, without the “s”. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/17 "2009-03-05T21:43:40Z")
> [@omni-not](#): > > Rick… I said if you USUALLY wake up at 7 A.M., meaning if you wake up at 7 A.M. now, come Sunday it will be 8 A.M. and therefore there should be more light. Nope. By that logic, I could wake up at 4am, set my clock forward to noon, and actually move the Sun to its apex. That’s one magic alarm clock! ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/18 "2009-03-05T22:00:29Z")
> [@](#): > > US and Canadian Dopers: Daylight Saving Time starts this weekend Oh yah don’t cha know. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/19 "2009-03-06T14:53:11Z")
> [@An\_Arky](#): > > I, for one, _love_ DST. I don’t care about it being dark in the morning, because I get up before sunrise anyway. I love having time to play with my kids in the yard, grilling, etc. after work. I do like that part of it. I just think I liked it better when they held off on starting DST until April, when the sun is rising early enough so that getting up in the dark isn’t so much of an issue. I only worry about waking up when it’s dark on work mornings. On non-work mornings, I don’t wake up until way later than sunrise, even in the middle of winter. If I did wake up before sunrise on a non-work morning, I would go back to sleep until a more civilized hour. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2009, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-and-canadian-dopers-daylight-saving-time-starts-this-weekend/488384/20 "2009-03-06T15:36:57Z")
This is the low point in the year for me, like an annual reminder of the death of an old friend. I know I am in the minority, but I like it cold and dark. DLST is from hell and as it was extended is now longer than normal time.