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ALPERN AT LARGE - Many of us are a little sleepy from losing an hour of sleep over the weekend, but many (probably MOST) of us are quite happy now that a different sort of season is behind us...as the darkness of the worst of winter is not only less powerful but driven away by the time change that extends dusk to 7 pm or later.
Some of us miss the darkness of the early evening, and miss the brighter mornings, while most of us (yes, MOST of us) prefer the brighter evenings and tolerate the darker mornings...which will resolve (in the Northern Hemisphere) as the summer days get longer and warmer, and due to the North Pole tilting towards the sun.
No matter where one stands on the Daylight Savings Time (DST) vs. Standard Time (ST), everyone seems to HATE the change...but the big debate comes to this:
- Daylight Savings Time (DST) helps with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) where many feel more depressed and/or anxious when it gets dark earlier, and/or allows for easier evening commutes and more productive evenings.
- Standard Time (ST) helps with encouraging sleep cycles to start earlier with going to bed well before midnight, and brighter mornings for both early risers and early commuters.
It should be remembered that when the earth’s North Pole sunward tilt brings longer and warmer days, people’s moods (in the Northern Hemisphere) seem to improve overall, but these moods get worse during the shorter and colder days of the winter when the North Pole tilts away from the sun.
Alcoholism, suicide, and all sorts of havoc occurs when there is no light for more hours in the fall, and then much, MUCH more so when Daylight Savings Time ends.
I work in the medical profession, and virtually ALL of my colleagues share my dread of the sudden darkness that Standard Time brings, and the long commute, and the less productive evenings that now begin harshly at 5 pm, and not 7-8 pm during DST.
Younger individuals, in my anecdotal experience, don’t care one way or another...
...but EVERYONE hates the change, and all the disruption that it brings with it.
In case you’re still falling for “the farmers want these time changes”, that’s just not true—they get up when the sun comes up, whenever that is. DST was started around World War I, and still remains an issue of the economy, energy usage, and defense measures.
President Trump seemed to feel that only a small but vocal minority wanted DST, and perhaps he’s one of those who runs with the circles of early risers.
Hence, unlike his predecessor President George W. Bush who extended DST to most of the year, President Trump wanted to end DST.
But then along came Elon Musk, who (like him or hate him) just threw out a quick poll to discover that, among 1.2 million of those responding, ~58% want DST forever, and ~42% want ST forever...
...yet perhaps what is NOT getting the right attention is that people do not always UNDERSTAND what “ending Daylight Savings Time” really means.
Is it ending DST, keeping DST, or just ending the twice-yearly changes?
As of late, President Trump has (perhaps rightly) declared the DST/ST debate to be about 50/50, and therefore one that he doesn’t want to weigh in on as much anymore...if at all.
In case you’re wondering, most of Europe does the DST/ST changes, too.
In case you’re wondering, the kids walking to school in the dark and getting at risk for automobile accidents is less because school is starting later to accommodate their ever-worsening sleep cycles.
And, in case you’re wondering, we still ideally want to END THE CHANGES that occur twice each year.
So let’s reframe the question in a way that we can all now more clearly understand:
DO WE KEEP THE CLOCKS THE WAY THEY ARE NOW, FOREVER, OR DO WE CHANGE THEM AGAIN TO “FALL BACK” AND KEEP THE TWICE-YEARLY CLOCK CHANGES?
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D, is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud husband and father. He was active for 20 years on the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) as an At-Large and Westside Village Zone Board Member focused on Planning and Transportation, and helped lead the grassroots efforts of the Expo Line as well as connecting LAX to MetroRail. His latest project is his fictional online book entitled The Unforgotten Tales of Middle-Earth, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Dr. Alpern.)
