An hypothesis possibly explaining why the Senate passed permanent Daylight Saving Time.

[Towlie]

Permanent Daylight Saving Time has special appeal to farmers, whom generally need daylight to do their farming.

Farmers tend to be concentrated in states where there are low populations and lots of farmland.

The 21 least populated states have a combined population of a little over 37 million people who are collectively represented by 42 U.S. senators.

California has a population of over 39.5 million people who are represented by 2 U.S. senators.

So maybe the House of Representatives, who more evenly represent the population, will stop this idea in its tracks.

[SoonerPride]

1. Farmers don't care what the clock says

They get up when the sun comes up.

Daylight savings time has nothing to do with farmers and never did.

[jcgoldie]

4. incorrect

Factory farms aside a large percentage of family farmers today have day jobs and that hour of daylight when you get back to the farm is golden.

[SoonerPride]

6. Daylight saving time wasn't started for farmers

It was started by Kaiser Wilhelm as a fuel saving measure in WWI

Cows don’t care what a clock says.

[jcgoldie]

7. I didnt say what it was started for

And I'm very familiar with cows. But to say DST doesn't benefit farmers is ill informed.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. Because corporate lobbies wanted it.

So the corporate pigs foist it upon us to make more money.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/1120488/daylight-saving-time-as-americans-know-it-was-instituted-by-corporate-lobbies-not-farmers/amp/

[lagomorph777]

46. Correct.

In fact, it turns out that we don't actually change the amount of daylight with legislation.

Learn something every day!

[jcgoldie]

2. it passed by unanimous consent

You are correct it is very good for farmers of which I am one. But there are 50 democrats in the Senate and most of them do not represent "low population" states... including the 2 from California.

[UTUSN]

3. Because it's *easy* to do? Popular? Avoidance of tough issues?

[jalan48]

8. +1

Instead of the much needed social programs included in the BBB we get the booby prize.

[UTUSN]

12. Bingo

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

20. IKR!!

[lagomorph777]

47. Yup!

[AZProgressive]

5. Could be health reasons

I read that changing times is bad for the health.

[Tree Lady]

10. All I know is it messes with my sleep

And takes me awhile to set back to normal. I bet many have this problem.

[lagomorph777]

49. Almost everybody has this problem, whether they realize it or not.

https://www.heart.org/en/news/2018/10/26/can-daylight-saving-time-hurt-the-heart-prepare-now-for-spring

Critics of daylight saving time say the practice is outdated. Many scientists say it's also dangerous – at least around the time when clocks "spring forward" and rob most of the population an hour of precious sleep.

The risk of having a stroke goes up 8 percent during the first two days after the beginning of daylight saving time, according to one Finnish study.

In Sweden, researchers found an average 6.7 percent greater risk of heart attack in the three days after the spring change. Inspired by that finding, a group of U.S. researchers conducted their own study and determined that heart attack risk jumped 24 percent the Monday after switching over to daylight saving time. That risk then tapered off over the remainder of the week.

By contrast, risk for heart attack dropped 21 percent on the Tuesday after the fall time change.

[doc03]

16. Changing time twice a year hurts your health! Try working

shift work 40 years.

[AZProgressive]

22. I found a link

I can’t copy & paste but the change can lead to higher rates of heart attacks, strokes, and traffic accidents.

https://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20211105/harmful-effects-of-daylight-savings

I also see links that say permanent DST can be bad for your health as well.

[doc03]

23. Hey I will gladly take my chances. nt

[AZProgressive]

31. This link is better

Why Ditching Daylight Saving Time Would Be Healthier for Everyone

(Snip)

Dr. Susheel Patil, a clinical associate professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who specializes in sleep medicine, said the time changes associated with daylight saving time typically cause us to lose sleep for about 1 week until we adapt to the change.

While we are going through this adjustment period, however, it can put our health and safety at risk.

“The loss of sleep has been shown to result in an increase in car accidents during the week after the change to DST, and there can be an approximately 20 percent increase in patient safety-related incidents associated with human error,” said Patil.

“In addition, DST has been linked to an increase in heart-related issues such as the acute occurrence of heart attacks, stroke, and atrial fibrillation,” he said.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-ditching-daylight-saving-time-would-be-healthier-for-everyone#How-daylight-saving-time-affects-health-and-safety

[Demsrule86]

43. Baloney...SAD is caused by lack of light...and I live in Ohio...it is dark by 4:30 in the fall and

and winter...I wake in the dark, drive to work in the dark, and drive home in the dark...it sucks.

[Blues Heron]

11. I dont mind not changing the clocks and staying on one time but it should be standard

and everything else should be done through scheduling. Its too weird and non logical to permanently label noon as 1:00PM.

[SheltieLover]

13. I agree!

[ZZenith]

15. You do realize that it's currently that way for the majority of the year, yes?

65% of the year, in fact.

Longer evenings in the summertime when the weather is nicer makes way more sense.

[Blues Heron]

19. Am I aware of that, yes,

But permanently decoupling noon from 12:00 just rubs me the wrong way because it’s just wrong. (Although pretty low on the scale of Things to Worry About of course)

[ZZenith]

30. Understood. It's all rather arbitrary and subjective.

Solar midnight and solar noon only coincide with actual midnight and actual noon in a relatively small part of the world so it’s largely just semantics.

I know of very few people who benefit from a 4:30am sunrise in the summer and a great many who benefit from a 9:30pm sunset.

[Blues Heron]

32. Yes the original sin was the creation of time zones

I think the problem is that DST is a darn good idea, except in winter, when it doesn’t really make sense to get a jump on the day when it’s not even daytime yet. There is just no way to have ones cake and eat it too with one schedule for the whole year. The schedule must shift for optimal placement of the work period during the day as the seasons shift.

[brooklynite]

39. The point is that you don't treat noon as 12 Pm in either case.

If you assume an average of 8 hours of sleep and 16 hours of awake, the logical flow would be to sleep from 8 PM to 4 AM and being awake from 4 AM to 8 PM. People’s “midday I always skewed by 2-3 hours.

[Blues Heron]

40. isnt noon supposed to be the sun at zenith - thats what Im talking about

does seem strange that the day should start at midnight though - shouldnt it start at dawn =00:00 - then the zenith (what we call noon) would be 0600, sunset would be 1200 and midnight would be 1800 - (using miltary time to avoid confusion)

I think if you are right on the center line of a time zone, then the sun is at zenith at noon (discounting the analemma effect which moves it slightly east and west throughout the year)

[brooklynite]

41. Yes, but so what?

Most people aren't at the centerline of a time zone, and the zenith of the sun is only relevant if you want to maximize sun hours which is not the way we live our lives.

[Blues Heron]

42. like I said, this rises to about 0.001 on the worry scale, but tradition and logic are the main two.

reasons for me. Because if we arent going to change the clock anymore, then lets just say what we really want which is to get a jump on the day so we can quit earlier. The workday would then be 8-4, clock stays on Standard, all is harmonious again. But saying noon is 1:00PM forever is just plain weird.

[cemaphonic]

33. Why? Clock time is a completely artificial human abstraction.

Most of Western Europe 1 hour ahead of GMT, even though Spain and France are due south of the UK. China is all one huge time zone. Check out a time zone map, and there are all sorts of weird expansions and contractions to time zones, based on political or cultural boundaries.

As long as everyone agrees on a standard, it doesn't really matter where the sun is at noon.

[Blues Heron]

36. well keep the traditional numbering system and change the start time of the workday

since its not going to change anymore it doesnt really matter. 8 to 4 instead of 9 to 5. Otherwise we have redefined what the role of the clock is which is to tell us roughly where the sun is. Your right though, it is all arbitrary.

[Demsrule86]

44. And why should we live with no light all winter in the northern states.

I disagree.

[Blues Heron]

48. we could still do daylight savings - it is just more honest to say we want the workday to be 8-4

that is all it is anyway - we want to get a jump on the day to quit earlier. So define the new working hours as 8-4 and voila - permanent DST without decoupling the clock from the sun. ie - noon would still be 12:00 along the centerlines of the time zones.

[lagomorph777]

50. +1000

[Hoyt]

14. I suppose Republicans are gullible enough to believe it gives more sunshine.

[PSPS]

17. Doesn't really matter

They did the same 50 years ago and it was undone two years later because people "found out" they hated it. The squawking will begin as soon as the first kid gets hit by a car on the way to school.

[Walleye]

24. They could always start school an hour later

[doc03]

25. Start school an hour later then, problem solved.

The kids I see are sitting in a warm car with mom at the end of the driveway waiting for the bus.

[everyonematters]

18. Changing the times back and forth is a big pain in the IT field.

Keeping it at one or the other will save manhours.

[lagomorph777]

51. Every time they change the rules, some software goes obsolete.

I had a device that came out just before they messed with it the last time. That device then had the wrong time for months out of every year.

[doc03]

21. There is still the same amount of daylight, it's one

f---g hour not the end of the world.

[Demsrule86]

45. That is true...but an hour of sun makes a different to me when I drive home from work.

It gets dark at 4;30...the kids can't even play outside after school. We have snow and ice often on our commutes so it makes a difference to us in places like Ohio.

[doc03]

53. With DST it will get dark a 530 pm instead

of 430 pm you will have an extra hour of light after work. I live in Ohio too I am retired now but in the winter I would go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. Some of these folks talk like moving the clock one hour is going to cause us to die. Let them work shift work for 40 years and then they can talk.
It is f--g crazy people in the USA worried about one hour a year killing people. The same time people in Ukraine are dying
for the freedoms we have.

[NCjack]

26. Changing back and forth by 1 hour alters the Earth's rotational speed.

And, what about the effect of changing the time on the Moon?

Maybe we should return to the way time was handled in Biblical times. (Science and Technology has really knotted this issue.)

[lagomorph777]

52. Many don't realize how many earthquakes this causes.

[JI7]

27. I'm in California and I will be happy with sticking to one time and not having to change it

twice a year .

[betsuni]

28. I live where there isn't DST. Wake up in summer, getting really hot, broad daylight outside,

birds noisy, I think it's time to get up and look at the clock. 4:30.

THAT messes with one's sleep, not one hour change twice a year, as far as I'm concerned. I like DST because brighter evenings are better than brighter hotter mornings and it doesn't matter, the daylight gets longer half the year and the other half shorter. I prefer the darker cooler half.

My clock stopped at 10:30 this morning and I finally realized that couldn't be right and checked, it was noon. The way some people talk, I think I should be freaked out, like maybe not knowing the right time for an hour and a half ruined my rhythms or glands and I'm going to die in an accident or something.

[Sympthsical]

34. Interesting hostility to learning

That's . . . a choice.

[betsuni]

35. Interesting hostility to humor.

That's ... a choice.

[canetoad]

29. As someone who rises early

I don't really like daylight savings time.

I've long thought that it is a measure of most benefit to small businesses, bars, cafes etc that make their money on lingering evenings. If this decision is to benefit these businesses, I'm all for it. After Covid they need a boost to get going again.

[haele]

37. I always thought it was to give consumers an extra hour to go shopping after coming home

From work, school, or after dinner.
Daylight Savings Time subconsciously encourages people to stay out later as it gets warmer, which means more time for spending on "entertainment".

Especially the further north you go; I remember a few midsummer summer months in Seattle where sunset was at 9:15/9:30 and we would take long family walks after dinner because we couldn't just afford to go out and go out for ice cream or a movie like many of the other families in our neighborhood did on those evenings where it was just a bit too hot (before AC) to stay inside and read or play for another three hours before it was cool enough to go to bed.

People don't do much late in the cold, dark months. But they do a lot more in warmer months.

Haele

[brooklynite]

38. The Senate voted for his unanimously...

It wasn’t a narrow vote where low population States made the difference e.