Daylight Saving Time Rant

Why can’t anyone adequately explain the definitive reason for changing the clocks for Daylight Saving Time (DST)?

Springing ahead makes me logy and disoriented for about a week, and falling back causes headaches for about the same length of time. Communicating with people in other countries becomes unreasonably complicated. DST does not improve the quality of life, and makes no sense at all. Why would we believe tinkering with the natural ebb and flow of daylight hours could possibly be beneficial?

Farmers, cows, school children, and saving energy during World War I are among the things cited to defend changing the clock twice a year. I’m quite sure that farmers milk their cows when the cows need milking, and it would make infinitely more sense to adjust school hours rather than causing global disruption. Can you imagine how much expense is incurred making the billions of electronic gadgets we use compatible with time changes? 

LiveScience published an article listing 5 ways the time change can affect your health. Traffic accidents, workplace accidents, loss of sleep, heart attacks, suicide, and forgetting to check your smoke detector all sound like less than optimal effects.

Health Solutions to Swing to Daylight Saving Time, an article published by Time and Date, cites several studies documenting health issues with the time changes. One cited article reminded people using medical devices or systems with internal clocks to check that they continued to work properly during the daylight saving switch.


What. The. Heck.

I propose we all agree to take responsibility for our personal preferences. Stop changing the clocks twice a year. If you like more hours of daylight, get up a bit earlier or later to achieve this. One of the biggest reasons we change our clocks to Daylight Saving Time is that it reportedly saves electricity. Newer studies, however, are challenging this long-held reason. How about, if you want to save energy, you just do it? If there are negative health effects associated with the time changes, why should we be forced to endure this twice a year?

What hubris has us believing we can manage circadian rhythms better than nature?



  1. 1

    For years I’ve felt the same way as you about DST. I hate it, but the powers that be don’t listen to people like us. Thanks for the blog.

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