The case against daylight saving time
Fall is my favorite season: bringing out autumn outfits, not sweating while hanging out outside, and watching all the leaves change into seasonal reds, oranges, and yellows, amounts to a season of pure delight. Then, all that goodness is taken away as the sun slowly starts to go down sooner in the day; the sunset then finally makes that final jump, and you’re woken up earlier than normal due to the brightness in the morning from the earlier sunrise. Daylight saving time (DST) completely screws with our circadian rhythm. As older adolescents with developing brains, and as college students trying to survive our classes, we need as much good sleep as we can possibly get—this sudden change in routine is harmful to our health.
The concept of DST comes from Benjamin Franklin in 1784, however, no one actually started to implement the DST system until 1916. Germany was the first country to adapt this time system before it spread to other European countries, and then eventually, most of the United States of America started to use it.
The most common understanding of why daylight saving exists is that it was made for farmers so they can have more daylight for working in their fields. This reason is, however, false. Different countries started using this time system so they could save on the costs of energy during wartime. If this reason for using Daylight Saving Time isn’t relevant today, then what other reasons are there for using it?
Yes, that extra hour of sleep we get on one Sunday each year feels life changing. It may even make the dreaded Monday wake up easier, considering your body thinks you’re waking up an hour later than you actually are. It is shown, however, that sunlight is a major factor in synchronizing our sleep/wake schedule that is implicitly tied to our circadian rhythm. This means, throwing off your sleep schedule, even by just one hour, can throw off your entire body-clock. It’s similar to us all becoming a little jet lagged all at once, which for anyone who has experienced it, knows it can be extremely difficult for your body to bounce back from.
Daylight saving time is bad for everyone’s health due to this disruption in our sleep/wake cycle. Even though the earlier sunset is what is most often associated with the exit from DST, the earlier sunrise also factors into this disruption. Through the sunrise coming earlier in the morning, we lose out on vital hours of sunlight during our awake hours. Our sleep is also disrupted by the earlier light for those who are particularly light sensitive by it waking some people up from its brightness and the way our body associates that with awakeness.
The rest of the United States should follow suit with Hawaii and Arizona and eliminate Daylight Savings on a national level. Despite any proclaimed benefits the time change may offer, the importance of sleep in our day-to-day lives and modern understanding of bodily regulation should show that this practice has outlived its use and no longer makes sense.
Thumbnail Photo courtesy of WikiMedia Commons