Thursday, November 08, 2018

adjusting to standard time

I've always been a day late and a dollar short, it seems, when presented with the obvious and failing to see it.  That trait which I was somewhat aware of in my youth has become more pronounced in my aging years.  To wit; I've been awakening every morning this week at between 0200 and 0230.  disconcerting to say the least.  Last night, after work, I was so tired I skipped super and went to bed at 1830.  Again this morning, at 0210 I was awake; wide awake!  And then, for the first time, it dawned on me;  (pun intended)  my body physiologically is still functioning on daylight savings time.  So at 0200 to 0230 my body thinks it's 0300 or 0330, which is my usual habit/time of rising for the past 40 years or so, give or take.


So now that I've figured out what, I suspect, most of you knew a week ago what  are the important points to take from this revelation, if, indeed there are any?

Well the first thing I see on Facebook in reference to this phenomenon is; Hurray, hurray we get and extra hour of sleep on Sunday.  Really?  Really?  It's Sunday for Christ's sake: sleep as long as you want.  What? you can't?  Exactly!  if you're like me and too bad if you are, you sleep a certain number of hours routinely exempting those mornings after a night out on the town and your drunken stupor keeps you asleep and or semi-conscious for longer than normal.  It's really a misnomer to believe that turning the clocks back will afford you anymore sleep.

What then are the advantages of turning the clocks back one hour?  Well, you get an hour more daylight in the morning when you're in the shower getting ready for work and an hour less when you have leisure time after work.  Snarky?  Well yes, it is.

So then the advantages seem to be nil for turning back the clocks.  Are there any disadvantages?
How about the statistical increase in motor vehicle and pedestrian accidents.  Just this week I've seen numerous videos of cars passing stopped school buses.  I wonder if this has anything to do with the decrease in awareness brought on by the fatigue generated in the first few weeks of the transition back to standard time. Maybe, It's worth considering.

Because it's now dark when we are driving home from work visibility is reduced and therefore more difficult to see cyclists and walkers,

During this transition there is an increase in heart attacks.  Stress induced?  Maybe.

There is also purportedly an increase in crime. 

There is also an increase in occurrence of depression.  I'll make a guess here, a speeding into seasonal affective disorder  time of the year.

Here is an interesting piece from which much of the above was gleaned: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/05/turning-back-the-clock-1-hour-takes-a-serious-toll-on-your-mental-health/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.d629f7375d05

My vote, not that anyone is asking or cares, is to quit frigging around with the clocks.  Leave it be daylight-saving time year round.

But since no one listened to me, at least take the time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors this time of year.


1 Comments:

Blogger Lee said...

Thank goodness...here in Queensland we don't have daylight saving. The other states do, but not us and I hope the status quo remains.

It was trialed back in the early 90s...but thankfully, we kicked it to the kerb/curb! :)

7:04 AM  

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