Daylight Saving Time: Do We Need It?

[Byzesion]

As you can probably guess by the loaded subject-line question, I'm not a fan.

[Boltor]

I'm not a fan of daylight savings either, I thank [insert deity here] that where I live doesn't practice daylight savings.

[Wordy]

Skynet does not follow daylight savings.

[Ananke II]

What's with all the hating on Daylight Saving Time? It's changing your clock 1 hour back or forth twice a year. It's really not that big of a deal.

[Byzesion]

Mar 5, 2012 2:23:19 GMT -5 Ananke II said:

What's with all the hating on Daylight Saving Time?

That's a valid question. Let me try to elaborate on my point of view.

(tl;dr version: it's annoying changing thirteen timepieces, people are more accident prone with an hour less sleep, it's too d*mn long for little energy savings, and F*CK IT'S TOO HOT FOR THIS EARLY.)

It's a colossal pain in the ass. And by that I'm referring to the process as a whole. Setting back your clocks, well, that's really dependent on how many clocks you have to set back. We have four clock radios, a wall clock, a mantle clock, a microwave with a clock on it, and six watches in total. It is a pain in the ass setting back that many timepieces. And that's not even counting the nine devices that automatically set themselves back (cable boxes, laptops, cell phones and such).

And the sleep. If you're on any kind of set sleep schedule, you are having an hour taken away from you that could be used for physically and mentally resting for your day at work, really only for the benefit of urban workers and outdoor sports fans. Because that's what people really want to do when they've lost an hour of sleep. Getting outside for a sport that needs a lot of concentration and hand-eye coordination. Not only that, but workplace accidents go up in both frequency and severity following the start of DST. And that hour? Yeah, you'll be getting that back around November.

That brings me to another point: the sheer length of Daylight Saving Time. In the US, DST is from March 11th to November 4th this year. I've done the calculations, and that is 238 days. Or if you prefer, seven months and 24 days, 34 weeks, or 65% of the year. That is, in my estimation, seventeen times as long as it takes you to adjust to the new time. And as far as energy savings go, a Department of Energy study in 2008 found that there was a savings in energy costs in 2007, the first year of the extended DST: A whole three hundredths of one percent.

And my last point is more a regional gripe than any conclusive evidence, but I live at about 27.5 degrees from the equator. There isn't all that much difference, in solar position terms, from EST to EDT. The same goes for Alaska, at the other end of the scale. And then there are states like Arizona and Nevada, where having people up and active an hour earlier during a desert summer would put too much strain on the power systems from all the air conditioners being used.

[Wordy]

I like Daylight savings.....it reminds me to check my smoke detectors.

[MinnaCaroline]

All my clocks automatically change themselves... the ones that matter anyway. I really look forward to daylight savings. It marks the date I can start running outside in the morning again because it will be light by 5:30am. And I love that in main part of the summer it doesn't even start to get really dark until like 9:30 or 10pm.

I like it. And like Wordy said, it reminds us to check our smoke detectors too.

[Markanite]

Yeah I like it too. It only takes a few days to get used to aswell