Posted on 09/03/2020 8:11:43 AM PDT by BenLurkin
For decades, many Americans have fiddled with their clocks each March and November as they “spring forward” or “fall back” to keep pace with daylight saving time (DST). Experts have historically claimed that the practice, which has roots in late 19th century and was widely instituted in 1966, benefits society by extending our sunlit hours and saving energy costs, although many others have called those benefits into question, as Amanda Kooser reports for CNET.
Last week, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) entered the debate, calling for the end of DST-related time-changes altogether. Instead, AASM leaders wrote in a statement in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the country should abolish seasonal time changes in favor of a “fixed, national, year-round standard time.”
“Permanent, year-round standard time is the best choice to most closely match our circadian sleep-wake cycle,” M. Adeel Rishi, lead author on the AASM report and a Mayo Clinic sleep specialist, says in an accompanying statement. “Daylight saving time results in more darkness in the morning and more light in the evening, disrupting the body’s natural rhythm.”
The body’s circadian rhythms, per the National Institute of Health, are the physical, mental and behavioral changes that drive human’s health—otherwise known as one’s “biological clock,” that tells most humans to wake up with the sun and sleep when it goes down. AASM leaders argue that changing to standard time would help align peoples’ social clocks—for instance, when they’re expected to be at work—with their biological ones.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
The older I’ve gotten, the longer it is taking me to get used to the change. It takes me about a week these days.
Well I don’t know about more important, but certainly easier to resolve.
Pick a time and stick with it year round.
I probably should have done “tongue-in-cheek” emoji, but I don’t know how. ;o]
Right. I think that probably would happen if we didn’t change. (Maybe I’ll check what goes on in Arizona, since it never changes.) But from my own experience, the changes help us to manage the hours of daylight so they are there when we need or desire them.
Millions of Americans work 2nd shift or 3rd shift.They adapt to those sleep patterns.
Ending daylight savings time is a false flag.
I agree with FamiliarFace. The changes hit me real hard and I wish we could settle on daylight savings time year round.
The change twice per year doesn’t bother me much-I alternately worked 1st and 2nd shifts for a number of years-but I’ve always disliked the earlier darkness in Winter, especially during the week because of work-also because I’m an early riser and an outdoor person...
I’m all for daylight savings time being kept all year-in Winter, that extra hour of daylight is welcome-especially for work-and I love long Summer evenings for outdoor activities, too
What kind of expert? Oh! Look it’s Captain Obvious!
Same here. I’ve heard of people around me complain of feeling the changes, but I guess I’m just biologically flexible. My cousin told me her dog is “off” for a while on its meal and treat times after a change, but mine isn’t. At 3 p.m., she comes for her food, CST or CDT.
I live near some of the nations largest dairy farms. Today they run 24hrs/day and 365/year. The sun has nothing to do with it, the cows know what time it really is regardless of what you do to the clock.
Me too and Im not much farther north than he is (there are multiple markers across the state for “you are now half way from the equator to the North Pole.)”
Year round DST.
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