Eric

Weekends

“Daylight Saving Time” Is Dumb, Dangerous

Congratulations.  We just lost an hour of our lives and we just CARRY ON LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is not for the benefit of farmers.  It was intended to save energy, but the history of DST says that is debatable.

The time change messes with our sleep cycles.  Numbers show that heart attacks, strokes, and car accidents spike in the days after it happens.  The one last argument you hear is that the economy is stimulated by the extra hours of daylight after work.  Enter Bloomberg, who blows that theory out of the water:

“The study compared Los Angeles with Phoenix in the 30 days after the March and November time changes. Arizona is a natural test case since it’s one of the two states, along with Hawaii, that doesn’t do daylight saving. In the spring, according to the consumer transaction data, the additional hour of evening daylight in Los Angeles managed to slightly boost card spending per person, compared with that in Phoenix, although by less than 1 percent. That spending uptick is swamped by the negative impact of the November time change, which sees the darkened population of Los Angeles spend 3.5 percent less at local retailers.”

So why do we still do this?  We have plenty of traditions in this country that are worth keeping.  This…is not.  — [eric]

BONUS EDIT:  Check out this link to help further my cause.  If we keep change to DST and then keep those hours the same year round, we don’t lose those late-night sunsets we all seem to love.

BONUS BONUS EDIT:  You may not notice, but your body’s internal clock does.  And it might be dangerous.