DST – goodbye for now friend!

For the record, I’m not a fan of returning to standard time. It’s a sign that winter is coming and the short, dark, cold days that accompany it. I love having daylight after work to enjoy some much needed time outside after being cooped up in the office all day. I love running in the woods, sunsets and the glow time just after. Today, the sun sets at 5:07pm which is just awful. On work days it’ll be dark when I head home which is just depressing.

This morning I decided to really read about why we mess with the clocks which proved harder to nail down than I anticipated. I figured a quick Google search would give me everything I needed to know in 2 minutes and I’d be on my way.

It turns out, there are a lot of myths out there about why we do it.

• It saves energy – potentially the most popular myth & the one that I believed even though it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It might have been true 100 years ago but it’s not relevant in the modern day of electronics and air conditioners. Not to mention that most people who head out to enjoy activities in the extended daylight drive their car to it offsetting any potential savings.

• It’s for the farmers – nope, they’re not fans of it either. They have to do certain tasks at sunrise no matter the time on the clock, so the time is irrelevant. It’s also irrelevant to my dog who woke me up a full hour earlier this morning since he goes by light not time. It turns out Ben Franklin first joked about it in an open letter he wrote in 1784 as a way for Parisians to reduce candle usage saving money on wax by relying on daylight. That was a joke and the idea wasn’t formally introduced until William Willett’s “Waste of Daylight” was published in 1907.

The Monday after DST starts also shows a spike in traffic accidents as tired people hit the road, your risk of having a heart attack is greater in the first 3 days after changing to DST & it disrupts sleep cycles which is especially hard on kids. It also puts kids outside walking to school & waiting for the bus in the dark. That’s a lot of negatives caused by one harmless little hour!

So why do we do it?

I read another article stating that in 1915 the biggest proponent of DST had been the Chamber of Commerce on behalf of small businesses and retailers. When it’s light for hours after work people are more likely to shop, dine out, grill, grab drinks and the big one – play some golf, an activity fully dependent on natural light. Finally, a reason that makes sense! By moving the clocks forward, there’s plenty of daylight after work for all of these activities which is a huge boost to those industries. The BBQ & golf sectors benefit the most and have lobbied hard for DST over the years. In 1986 DST was officially extended by a month realizing an additional $400 million in golf revenues & a $200 million sales bump for the BBQ & grilling industry.

One could also argue that there are huge mental health benefits to having more daylight to enjoy our favorite activities. I know that holds true for me & my family.

No matter the reason for our clock tweaking I think we can all agree on one thing: long summer nights are well worth the minor inconveniences changing the clock causes. I’m already counting down the days until we spring ahead!

Until we meet again DST, I will miss you!

Warm thoughts to all!