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Matt Paxton
How well do you adjust to the change from standard time to daylight saving time? We talked around the office Monday mor ning, and, no su r p r i se, there was no consensus on whether to keep daylight time part of the year, go to daylight time year-round, or have standard time yearround. Even the Congress disagreed – the Senate passed a bill last year to have yearround daylight time, but the House never considered the bill.
I don’t know if this is one of those “Them’s fightin’ words” issues, but people do seem to have strong opinions on it. Personally, I don’t mind the change. My body clock has no trouble adjusting. But my wife says it takes her at least a week to get back to feeling normal, and several co-workers said the same.
I like having it light longer in the evenings over the warmer months. I often have things to do outside after work, like mowing grass, painting, or doing an improvement project, and having it light until 8:30 or 9 p.m. allows me to get more done. The downside is that it’s dark in the mornings until later on the shoulders of daylight time, from now until about mid-April.
Daylight saving time came about during wartime, supposedly to save fuel – first during the First World War, and then again during World War II. After both wars, it was eliminated, but after the Second World War, whether to adopt daylight time was left up to local option. That resulted in a confusing patchwork of times, which especially affected the transportation industry. Imagine looking at an airline ticket for a flight from Roanoke to New York that said the flight left at 10 a.m. If Lexington ran on standard time, and Roanoke opted for daylight time, you can see the chaos that could cause.
To provide some uniformity, Congress mandated a national standard in 1966 for daylight time, with set dates for changeover. And, with a few exceptions allowing entire states to opt out, it’s been that way since, except during the oil embargo of the 1970s. From early January 1974 to April 1975, we experimented with year-round daylight time. Proponents said it would reduce heating and lighting costs, result in fewer auto accidents and provide more recreation time. But parents were concerned about their children going to school in the dark, and the construction industry said it interfered with their work day. Public support for the experiment plummeted by the end of the March. In the fall of 1974, Congress voted to return to four months of standard time and eight months of daylight.
Interestingly, sleep experts say we should go to yearround standard time, which is closer to actual “sun time” depending on where within a time zone you happen to be. Benjamin Franklin observed over 200 years ago that people could save on candles by getting out of bed earlier in the morning, making use of the natural morning light instead.
I think that regardless of what Congress may do about daylight time, there will always be people who would prefer all-standard time, some preferring all-daylight, and some, like me, who really are OK with what we have.
Now, if you really want to get me going, ask me how I feel about stink bugs!
