Should the United States continue to switch between Standard and Daylight Saving Time?

[NurseJackie]

I changed the clocks in our home to Saving Time before bed LAST night. I was starting the change-over early. I tried to convince part of my brain that I was going to bed "late" (although actually on time) but I did manage to get up "early" with no problems. --- Now, all day long, every time I see a clock or watch... I'll be training (reinforcing) the idea that DST is already in place.

Maybe that will make Monday morning easier for us. (The Mister always struggles with the time-change when it means he loses an hour of sleep. He works hard, but he can also be a bit of a sack-hound.)

I can usually adjust after a couple of days... but it's still a big annoyance to me.


Should the United States continue to switch between Standard and Daylight Saving Time?

64 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes! Keep switching between Standard Time and Daylight Saving Time.
	7 (11%)
	No! Stay with Standard Time year-round.
	43 (67%)
	No! Stay with Daylight Saving Time year-round.
	14 (22%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[rampartc]

1. pick a time and stick to it.

[NurseJackie]

16. That would certainly be the easiest solution.

[Hortensis]

51. I say the easiest is to get most of these damned time displays

we don't need on appliances large and small and let them adjust any time changes they need for themselves without bothering us, including recovering after power outages.

God knows they're capable; the latest thingies our kids've decided we should have now set themselves up by talking directly to each other, because we don't know what they're talking about.

[Skittles]

2. I stay up all night performing initial program loads on multiple logical partitions

and yes I STILL ALSO HAVE TO CHANGE MY CLOCKS

so it makes me laugh when I hear of how "annoying" it is

are people really this delicate? Just sayin'

[NurseJackie]

3. Laugh away!

so it makes me laugh when I hear of how "annoying" it is

Hardy har-har! Laugh-it-up!

https://utswmed.org/medblog/daylight-saving-time-sleep-health/

Why daylight saving time may be bad for your brain and health

October 29, 2020

(...)

In fact, this twice-a-year desynchronization of our body clocks has been linked to increased health risks such as depression, obesity, heart attack, cancer, and even car accidents.

In 1997, my laboratory discovered the CLOCK gene – the first circadian gene in mammals. My colleagues and I determined that mutated CLOCK genes can cause delays in circadian functions, which in turn lead to dysfunctions in metabolic, behavioral, and cognitive abilities.

(...)

Cardiovascular risks

Multiple studies have shown a small increase in heart attacks after the start of daylight saving time in the spring and a small decrease at its end in the fall. Meanwhile, stroke rates are 8% higher in the first two days following both time changes.

(...)

Vehicular crashes

Fatal traffic accidents also become more of a danger after the spring time change. A recent study showed that fatal accidents increase 6% and are more common in the mornings directly after the clock change. There did not appear to be an effect from the fall-back transition to standard time.

[Skittles]

4. so people really ARE that fucking delicate

as a night shift worker I routinely lose three or four hours sleep EVERY WEEK because of WEEDEATERS

[TreasonousBastard]

7. I heard that! When I worked nights the real annoyances were leafblowers and chain saws.

[hlthe2b]

11. Roofers. The bane of any shift worker.

[USALiberal]

14. Nice try, just deal with it! Nt

[Escurumbele]

19. I have a hard time accepting that people's lives are affected so much because of a change

in time...people who want to be depressed will be depressed, they are only trying to find an excuse for it.

If you think you can, or you think you can't, you are right...Henry Ford (not crazy about quoting Ford, but it is a good quote).

I would say leave it at DST because we get more light at the end of the day, it allows people to go outdoors with some light left, which that by itself should be reason enough for people to not be depressed. Pick up a sport, throw a frisbee with your kids, kick a soccer ball, throw a football, run, get on your bicycle, play golf, tennis, etc...so much to do while you are basking in the Sun...

[NurseJackie]

24. Charming. (Depression is real.)

people who want to be depressed will be depressed, they are only trying to find an excuse for it.

So, you're suggesting that people who SUFFER from depression are faking it and "choosing" to be depressed... that they're "acting-out" and being rebellious like some "emo" or "goth" teen?

[Escurumbele]

31. Medical depression is one thing, but there are tons of people out there who are looking for

a chance to feel depressed without having medical issues, whether it is that they are looking for attention, or simply need to give some sort of meaning to their lives and instead of finding constructive ways to do it they go the easy way of feeling sorry for themselves.

I am not oblivious to the fact that depression as an illness exists, but the change of time should not bring about high numbers of depressed people who may not have been depressed before. People who suffer from depression have suffered from it all their lives.

If we cannot recognize that then we cannot help those who suddenly decide to become depressed. These are people who forget their feelings of depression once they either take on a sport, or a job that fulfills them, or join a group, etc...lets be real, the fact there is more sunshine during the day should be a cause for joy, a chance to get our vitamin "D" naturally, to enjoy other people's company, to get good at some sport and release the tensions accumulated from the day job, etc...

No, I did not suggest anything you think I did.

[USALiberal]

13. I automated that process, much easier! Nt

[Skittles]

54. some are single command-driven

but some take quite some time, multiple commands......still, the boots are usually drama-free because changes are frozen out.....and for Spring Forward, there's no need to let them sit in reset for an hour

[USALiberal]

55. Ok, cool, probably more complicated than I do.nt

[Happy Hoosier]

60. There is just no good reason to do it.... so why do it?

[Skittles]

61. huh?

do you mean time change or booting? Some big systems required booting for time change

[LittleGirl]

5. Here in Europe we don't change this weekend

We change at the end of the month weekend. Just an FYI

[NurseJackie]

6. I think the DST changeover in the US was the same as in Europe...

... but some lawmaker (probably from Florida) thought it was a good idea to increase the number of weeks.

I imagine that the staggered adoption of DST makes cross-border (cross-zone) travel very confusing and a bit of a pain.

[LittleGirl]

27. It used to be the same

Last weekend in March and October until the states changed the schedule.

[bello]

20. Just another reason for global GMT

One more reason for everybody in the world to switch to GMT.

As someone who used to work in a global corporation, I found it a real PITA to set up meetings with participants from multiple time zones from all over the world. Global GMT would solve this problem. There is a reason that aviation uses Zulu time. It reduces confusion and errors. Global GMT is to aviation what time zones were to the railroad in the 1800s.

If you want to start work earlier or later, discus it with your supervisor. You are big boys and girls. It shouldn’t take the federal government to decide this change.

-bello

[LittleGirl]

26. I grew up

In Indiana, a section that never changed times until Mitch Daniels changed it a few years ago.

Then I moved to Arizona and they never change time either. Honestly, it’s not necessary to change the clocks...ever.

[Celerity]

21. and after this change, hopefully never again, perm DST FTW (Sweden here)

[NurseJackie]

8. Perceived problems with permanent DST

Perceived problems with permanent DST

Since daylight saving time creates the illusion of the sun rising and setting one hour later on the clock, but does not add any additional daylight, the already later sunrise times under standard time are pushed an hour later on the clock with daylight saving time. Late sunrise times can become unpopular in the winter months which essentially forces workers and schoolchildren to begin the day in darkness. In 1974 following the enactment of the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Act in the United States, there were complaints of children going to school in the dark and working people commuting and starting their work day in pitch darkness during the winter months. The complaints led to the repeal of the act in October 1974 when standard time was restored until February 23, 1975. In 1976, the United States returned to the schedule set under the Uniform Time Act of 1966. In 1971, year-round daylight time in the United Kingdom was abandoned after a 3-year experiment because of complaints about winter sunrise times. The same complaints also led to Russia abandoning DST and instituting standard time year round in 2014.[142]

[Freddie]

10. I was in HS in 1974 and remember that well

Kids waiting in the pitch black for the bus. Not safe.
Are we such delicate flowers we can’t deal with one hour twice a year? On a Sunday when most people don’t have to get up early? I love the long summer evenings. If you really think businesses are going to change their hours instead...right. Keep things the way they are.
I play in a community band and most of our concerts are weeknight evenings in the summer - those nice long sunny evenings. Take away DST we might as well go out of business.

[LittleGirl]

28. I hate when the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm!

When I lived in Az it was great to have the evenings cooler after dinner.
I live in Switzerland now and the sun doesn’t set until 9:30 in July. It doesn’t get dark until after 10:30! That’s way too late.

[localroger]

38. I grew up in New Orleans

The first time I visited New England in the summer, I was astonished at the length of the days. Like, the Earth really is a sphere.

[LittleGirl]

48. Yup! When I had lived in Arizona and went north

I forgot how long the days were.

[Jerry2144]

45. And I hate how early sunrise

I hate how early sunrise is in the summertime. If we stayed on standard time in Las Vegas, the sun would rise at 430 in the summer. My dogs can’t tell time and figure when the sun is up, it’s time to play. And in winter time, the sun sets at 430, way too early to have light in the evening to do work. Let’s just stay daylight time year round and keep the light later in the afternoon and evening

[LittleGirl]

47. Well the earth sphere rotating like it does

Means that if you’re as far north as northern Indiana and Switzerland, daylight starts early anyway. I could never live in Alaska or Norway that has total darkness or endless light either. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[JI7]

63. That was so weird to me when I was visiting the UK

And i remember in Canada how bright it was in early hours.

[scarytomcat]

23. Thanks for the info, should leave the time alone and

change our work times?
six hour days?

[mopinko]

35. yeah, change the school day. it's starts to early for a lot of kids anyway.

this is a super peeve of mine.
my hs'ers had long commutes, mostly. sleep deprivation is rampant in teens and leads to depression and suicide. like, in a straight line. discipline issues too.
i have 1 kid who was non-24. we faced a choice of let a genius kid drop out of a top flight school, or risk finding him hanging from the ceiling fan.

it could be fixed w the stroke of a pen, and some adjustments from the adults.
but no.

[roamer65]

56. New England should move to the Atlantic time zone.

Their daylight pattern is more similar to Nova Scotia’s, than to Michigan’s or Ohio’s.

https://boston.curbed.com/2019/1/15/18183515/massachusetts-atlantic-standard-time

[hlthe2b]

9. I used to care about this and thought we should stay on DST. Now, I really just don't care

The change does represent a clear "break" between late Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer. I'm used to it and am fine leaving it as it is.

That said, I am a true morning person and right now I'm waking up at 3:00-3:30, but I don't really get up until 4 AM. By 5-5:30, I'm caffeinated and ready to do a 3-4 mile walk with the pup to and from the dog park most days or the nearby more hilly trail if I wait a bit closer to sunrise. It is dark now when we head out, so that won't be a big change. With the time change, I will just end up having one less hour to lull about drinking coffee before I head outside.

Having worked nights in the past, I know how hard it is for true night people or those working changing shifts to deal with all the time changes, so I can certainly understand why some feel very differently about this.

[NurseJackie]

12. I never think about how many clocks (and devices with clocks) there are in my world...

... until I must begin to change them all. (Only my phone and PC switch the time automatically.)

[hlthe2b]

15. Interesting. I only have to do the clock on the oven and in my car--The former I rarely even look at

Ipad, laptop, iPhone and my fitness tracker/watch all change automatically. I suppose there may be a clock in a guest bedroom that is rarely used. Honestly, I haven't thought about changing clocks for some time.

[NurseJackie]

17. Let's see...

Laundry room wall-clock; bathroom wall clock; bathroom wall clock; bedroom wall clock + 2 bedside clocks; guest room bedside clock; vcr / DVD clock (yes); living room wall clock; kitchen counter microwave; kitchen hood microwave; kitchen stove; kitchen wall-clock; keurig clock; dining room cuckoo clock; foyer anniversary clock; office wall clock; truck clock; truck clock; garage workroom wall-clock; mantle antique regulator clock. (Plus my every-day wristwatch, my dress-up wristwatch, the Mister's several watches... he's more into watches than I am... and they're too hard for me to figure out how to set the time, so that's his chore.)

There's never enough time, so we spend a lot of our time, measuring it. Weird, huh?

[hlthe2b]

22. That reminds me of those clock repair stores (which I could use). Do they still exist?

I've got some antique clocks that I wanted to have worked on for several years now, but the last repair shop I knew of closed long ago. I doubt any that were still out there have survived COVID closures.

[jimfields33]

25. I only have to do car, microwave and stove

Takes 5 minutes. I hear that my next car will automatically change which will be nice. I guess all cars built today have that feature. My car is a bit older.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. I might consider splitting the half hour year round

But I do like the hourly time change with the seasons.

[Scottie Mom]

29. I ❤️ Daylight savings time!

I wish it were year round!

[Roland99]

30. Spring forward one more time then hold it. Lighter later

[ret5hd]

32. IT WOULD BE UNFAIR TO STOP DST NOW!!!

I had to endure DST clock/sleeping changes my entire working life! Early-late-early-late...year after year! I paid my dues! I did what I was supposed to do!

And now that I’m retired, ya’ll want to ROB me of the pleasure of watching ya’ll do it too!

(just using the same logic used to argue against student loan forgiveness)

[NurseJackie]

34. You win!

[ad121rome]

33. One time zone

How about placing the entire US under one time zone. That way everyone knows what time it is in New York or LA. If you need more sun you can get up earlier or install a few LED lights. Bottom line, pick a method and stick to it, quit the day light savings nonsense. It doesn’t save anything.

[Midwestern Democrat]

43. It would really suck for people on the West Coast to live their lives under Eastern Standard Time.

Under Standard Time, Noon is supposed to be when the sun reaches its highest point in the sky - there would be no point of having one time zone in the US - it's not like people in California would say "We're going to now do things at the exact same time New York does - start work, eat lunch, eat dinner, go to bed" - they would simply have a very strange new frame of reference when it came to time - work starts at 11 am; lunch is at 3 pm; primetime television starts at 11 pm, etc.

[hunter]

59. China does that.

Maybe we could eliminate time zones entirely and everyone on earth could use Universal Coordinated Time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time

[Buns_of_Fire]

36. I live on MOST (My Own Sweet Time) now, so it doesn't matter to me.

But, in the spirit of unity, allow me to offer a compromise: Split the difference, and just get rid of either the March OR the November adjustment.

So, for example, I'll set my clocks forward this evening. Fine. But come November, I won't set them back again. Then, come next March, I'll set them forward again.

Within a generation or so, we will have lost a whole day, so we can just remove one from the calendar (I recommend June 14 -- He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named's birthday). Also, future generations will no longer have to worry about what time it is, because they'll be too busy worrying about what day it is. The best part is, we can do it all without a flux capacitor.


I'm also working on an argument for having five International Date Lines.

[ret5hd]

37. My god...that's so crazy it just might work!!!

[NurseJackie]

39. That's a wonderful clock! We need something like that in our camper!

Perfect!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

46. That's a great retirement/covid clock. I never know what day it is. nt

[tanyev]

40. How about moving it a half hour and then never moving it again?

[NurseJackie]

41. Which way? 1/2 hour forward? Or 1/2 hour back?

Oh, wait... never mind.

[central scrutinizer]

42. Kind of what India did

While under British control, India had two time zones. After independence, they decided to split the difference which put the whole country on the same time. (GMT +5:30) Nepal is even stranger. (GMT + 5:45)

[Mr.Bill]

65. I agree,

but it would be best if the whole world went along with it.

[Raine]

66. PERFECT compromise! 👍 nt

[QED]

44. Just pick one and stick with it...it's confusing to those of us in states that don't change

I always need to recalibrate how many hours ahead or behind family members are. Cable programs - Rachel, etc. - are on an hour earlier or later.

[FoxNewsSucks]

49. A few years ago,

I had more clocks that needed changing. I had something to do Sunday, so I did them all late Saturday afternoon. There's no logical reason, but for the rest of the evening, seeing the later time made it easier to go to bed a little earlier, and Sunday not as annoying.

I never have a problem adjusting in the fall, or when I travel west.

Since then, I change the clocks Saturday morning after I feed the animals and have coffee. I have lunch earlier, dinner earlier and it really seems that changing during the day on Saturday is a lot easier and much less of an "adjustment".

I'd still like to just cancel the "fall back" this year and leave it alone from now on.

[Hortensis]

50. Nationally DST reportedly saves about 0.5%/day daily energy consumption,

but in various regions of the nation consumption actually increases because of increased used of heating and cooling during certain periods. Energy for lighting, believe it or not, is not significantly affected.
That's under current conditions with current technology, all of which will change.

We could redraw the national time map to maximize the benefits. 0.5%/day "could power 100,000 households for a year." Just one of many things we might do that cumulatively could stop and eventually reverse climate change -- and become part of sustainable and conserving culture. There are so many ways we could happily and comfortably adjust our lives instead of our thermostats, just have to build them in.

As for our enjoyment of sunshine and effects of sunrise and set through the year, having ME, ND, WA, FL, TX, and SoCA all on the same time makes no sense. Its our country, not business's, and business can use computers and logisticians to figure it out.

For now I clicked DST FOR THE PEOPLE , but I'd like to see at least serious consideration of retiring those archaic time zone lines for smart-time lines.

[Polybius]

52. Absolutely

It makes it interesting by giving me something different in November and March. I love it.

[NotASurfer]

53. Even keeping standard time I suspect some businesses will switch to "summer schedule" hours

Just to make employee work experience a little more miserable when the alarm goes off at 3:30 AM

[Owl]

57. Much ado about nothing.

[NurseJackie]

58. For some, perhaps.

[JI7]

62. Stick to one, it's unnecessarily inconvenient

[LetMyPeopleVote]

64. Why do we do this again?

Link to tweet

[Polybius]

67. I see most want Standard Time year-round

If that was the case, I couldn't live anymore. 7:30 darkness in June would be unacceptable for me. One of the biggest things to look forward to for me is NYC Summers that don't get dark till 8:30.