25 thoughts on “The Myth Of DST”

  2. Just pick one time basis and stick to it. It’s the switching that bothers me. As I get older I find it much more difficult to get back on track: My dogs absolutely HATE it.

  3. Agreed….change it tomorrow and let that be the last change. But if you changed it today that wouldn’t bother me all that much.

  4. This is one of those 80/20 issues Trump has been putting himself on the 80 side. Eliminating DST would be hugely popular. Make this the last time change.

        1. I wasn’t too happy at waiting at the bus stop for school in the dark. On the other hand, I got to look at Venus during the bus ride.

  5. “Leave it so it stays light longer in the evening, it helps me hike after work.”
    So the poor folks get to get up and go to work in the dark. Great.
    Lots of folks like to get up and go for a walk in the early morning. This was found in Perth, Western Australia during a DST trial. The beachfront coffee vendors were annoyed at the loss of morning business, as were the early walkers.

    1. All of this, especially for those who experience winter.

      I feel like most of the proponents of year round DST live on the Eastern most end of their respective time zones, or don’t live in places where summer and winter have significant differences in daylight.

      Can’t imagine being in North Dakota in January and waiting until almost 9 AM for the sun to rise…

      Full disclosure, I’m about 1/3 of the way from the eastern end of our time zone, and far enough north that winter exists.

      1. I lived in central Germany for three years (50N). Also, in Ottawa, Ontario (45 N)for twelve. Now I live in Northern Montana (48N). BTW I lived in So Cal (34N) for most of my life. I like seasons.

        In the dead of winter? Perhaps five or six hours of light. DST didn’t affect that except the numbers associated with darkness and light.

    2. Leaving it after the change won’t help, because there will be a lot of people who will want even more, and will demand “daylight saving saving time” to “add” another hour of daylight. Also making it permanent will basically not help in late-fall to early-spring times (a.k.a. “winter) because there’s no spare hour of daylight to add to the end of the day.

  6. My internal clock must have a cell connection. My alarm is set for 5 AM on work days, 6 AM on non work days. Almost all non work days I wake up just before my alarm goes off at 6 AM… and it was no different this morning, even though 6 AM this morning was actually 5 AM. Somehow, my brain knew. I’ve never been bother by the twice a year time changes, it’s only an hour either way and I can adapt easily.

  7. I don’t mind a one hour time change. Between working rotating shift work for six years (perpetual jet lag) and international travel, adjusting to time shifts isn’t a big deal. What sucks is winter on standard time when it gets dark before 5 PM. Yes, I live near the eastern side of the central time zone boundary.

  8. For those of us who are natural night owls, DST is misery. I already struggle with mornings, and having to get up an hour earlier makes it even worse. And no, my body doesn’t adjust. It knows what time it is from natural cues. Permanent DST would turn life into a sentence to be endured.

  9. Why don’t we just split it? That would be a very Trumpy thing to do too. The rest of the world can get used to it or not – whatever.
    Call it SUSATb. Standard USA Time bitches.

      1. Saw them in concert in the late 70’s. My ears were ringing for two days afterwards. They were great but too loud for the venue. Poor acoustics for such a great band.

  10. I always say I’m glad that we get the full hour back in the fall, rather than the government taking their usual 30% cut.

  11. For us in SE Michigan, we live in the western part of the eastern time zone. So when we have standard time, it’s like DST, but when we have DST, it’s a double dose. At the time of the switchover, mornings are pitch black. Personally, I’d prefer standard time year round, but if it has to be DST, then so be it. Let’s stop switching back and forth.

    1. Standard time could be done instantly (more or less). The state just has to say “stop this”. I don’t know why Texas, in particular, doesn’t say FTS and pull the plug on DST.

      I suppose if the red states started doing this that the blue states would pretend that it was a MAGA thing and go for double-secret DST, but at least the interior of the country would be spared the madness.

  12. When I lived in NH, this sort of mattered, here in NC not so much. Plus, retired and all. I’m a morning person but prefer DST. When I commuted, it was easier driving to work in the dark than driving home in the dark (when I was tired).

  13. My favorite West Wing episode was “20 hours in America”, where our intrepid White House staffers get caught in a SNAFU in Indiana and cannot catch AF-1 to get back to DC.
    The main reason is because some counties in Indiana didn’t recognize DST while most did. That used to be true. I know because I lived in East Central Illinois as a youngster. The counties that bordered Illinois would be in our time zone in summer and the rest of Indiana in the winter. That changed in 2006. There are still counties in extreme northwest Indiana (near Chicago) and extreme southwest Indiana that observe Central Time, but all counties now observe DST. According to Wikipedia.

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