It’s time to reset the clocks once again

[Ronstar]

Time hasn’t mattered much to me since I retired. I fail to see the benefits of daylight saving time. Arizona does ok without it.

 

[Trailwalker]

Clocks do not change in Mazatlan, Mexico.

 

[W2R]

Clocks do not change in Mazatlan, Mexico.

I grew up in Hawaii, which does not have daylight savings time, either. According to Google they haven't had it since 1933. That always seemed to work well for us there. I'm still waiting for the rest of the country to do the same.

 

[Telly]

I'm fine with changing back and forth, no big deal to me.

What WAS a big deal, was the winter of 1973/74 I think it was, that we stayed with DST through the winter with the idea that it would save oil as the Arab Oil Embargo was going on.

That was awful. Living in the frozen north, getting up even earlier than usual to shovel snow in pitch black, starting up frozen car and scraping windows with the dome light on to see the ice I'm trying to scrape. Coldest time of the day, zero light. Icing back over by the time I scraped another window. Driving on slippery roads in darkness.

Bus drivers had the same issues. And picking up kids when it's dark. Kids standing on street corners where there were no sidewalks, or unshoveled and stood in the street, dark. There was a hue and cry about it. Not repeated since then. I don't think I ever read or saw on TV back then, any news story about how great it was staying with DST for winter.

The next winter, when we were back on usual Standard Time, never heard anyone pining for year-round DST. But I did hear people talking about how they hoped we never did it again.

 

[Samsung4321]

Yeah, my year+ consistent lack of sleep is unrelated to DST. As far as DST itself through my lifetime, that was an easy issue to address by going to bed early. And even if they don't, it's hard to feel sorry for someone losing an hour of sleep occasionally. I would take that trade any day of the week and twice on Sunday. lol

Losing 1 to 2 hours sleep every day is very roughly like switching randomly between standard and daylight savings time every few days.

For those with sleeping disturbances keeping to solar time (eg arising at dawn), not local or standard or daylight savings time, is 101 of sleep therapy - due to blue light causing entrainment of circadian cycle to the sunlight cycle.

 

[badatmath]

No changes here in AZ!

 

[jim584672]

I watched my computer clock jump to 3:00am. I give myself a nerd award.

 

[old medic]

It seemed I always managed to get that overnight shift in the fall. And I recall one time that I didn't I wound up turning up an hour early for my Sunday morning shift. Couldn't win for losing! .

I also always seemed to be working nights when it changed in the fall and pulled 13 hours, and was on days when it changed back shorting me some sleep.

 

[misanman]

I get up at 6:30AM and walk seven days a week. So it's just now been getting light during this period and I'm glad that I don't have to use a flashlight. As of today, it's pitch black out again. As a result, I view DST as a bit of a nuisance - sigh.

 

[audreyh1]

I get up at 6:30AM and walk seven days a week. So it's just now been getting light during this period and I'm glad that I don't have to use a flashlight. As of today, it's pitch black out again. As a result, I view DST as a bit of a nuisance - sigh.

Why not leave it at 7:30AM until the sun catches up with you? Unless you are still working a day job of course.

 

[Badger]

If you have animals that rely on you in the morning then an hour one way or the other makes no difference. You won't be sleeping in the morning anyway.

Cheers!

 

[Spock]

It's 2023. Phones you hold in your hand have a million+ more compute power than the rockets that went to the moon.

My Samsung A50 can't figure out what time it is. This morning I woke up in AZ yet my phone had skipped ahead an hour. It can't figure out crossing time zones when on a cross-country drive either. If I turn off network time and manually set the timezone it works. If I turn network time back on it moves from Phoenix (MST) to Denvery (MDT). My previous two Motorolas handled this with no problem.

 

[TheWizard]

It's 2023. Phones you hold in your hand have a million+ more compute power than the rockets that went to the moon.

My Samsung A50 can't figure out what time it is. This morning I woke up in AZ yet my phone had skipped ahead an hour. It can't figure out crossing time zones when on a cross-country drive either. If I turn off network time and manually set the timezone it works. If I turn network time back on it moves from Phoenix (MST) to Denvery (MDT). My previous two Motorolas handled this with no problem.

Bad smartphone, bad!

 

[target2019]

"if dogs run free then why can't we" - Dylan

 

[CaptTom]

Reading some of the perfectly logical posts here, I'm starting to suspect why we hear so much whining every year:

The media and social networks are amplifying it.

Think about it. We all like to gripe about stupid little things which don't really matter. The media is always looking for ways to get us "engaged" (aka, spun up and angry.) The social media algorithms feed us this kind of crap for the same reason.

Maybe I'm romanticizing, but I seem to remember a time when the media explained the benefits of DST, and actively worked to dispel misunderstandings instead of feeding them.

 

[JoeWras]

I kind of hope they make DST permanent.

Why? Not because I think it makes sense. But because I'm going to enjoy all the wailing and gnashing of teeth come winter when kids are out at the bus stop at 8AM in complete darkness. Should make good theater.

 

[GenXguy]

Losing 1 to 2 hours sleep every day is very roughly like switching randomly between standard and daylight savings time every few days.

That's a straw man. I'm not talking about a made up scenario of switching between standard and DST every few days that doesn't exist. Those time changes are twice per year. And you shouldn't lose any sleep by making a minor adjustment to the sleep schedule one night. I actually got more sleep last night than usual. lol

For unrelated reasons, I'm actually losing about 3 hours per night on average vs. what I feel is the optimal sleep for me, but 2 hour more per night would be acceptable. I have made some positive progress. I went 2 nights straight with zero sleep once about a year ago and another time had zero sleep 3 out of 4 nights a while after. I haven't had that issue lately.

I have some blue light blocking goggles that block almost all blue light. I wear them if I'm going to look at any screens late. I think they help. There are some settings on phone and computer software I use that cut down on the blue light as well, but the goggles are superior for blocking it.

 

[CRLLS]

From what I can tell, DST is not a federal issue. As already mentioned by several here, it varies state by state. in fact

According to https://www.ncsl.org/transportation/daylight-saving-time-state-legislation

At least 22 states considered or are considering legislation related to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in 2023

A CBS News poll in March 2022 found that 46% of U.S. residents preferred daylight saving time all year round, 33% preferred standard time year-round and 21% were okay continuing to clock switch twice a year.

DST or not is not the big issue as I see it. Within a given time zone, the sunrise and sunset can already vary by ~1 hour. Some people only have to live a mile or two to take advantage of their chosen daylight hours based on some artificial "clock"

What if we didn't change times but changed the time people start to work or go to school etc. to adjust their travels based on daylight?

 

[badatmath]

It's 2023. Phones you hold in your hand have a million+ more compute power than the rockets that went to the moon.

My Samsung A50 can't figure out what time it is. This morning I woke up in AZ yet my phone had skipped ahead an hour. It can't figure out crossing time zones when on a cross-country drive either. If I turn off network time and manually set the timezone it works. If I turn network time back on it moves from Phoenix (MST) to Denvery (MDT). My previous two Motorolas handled this with no problem.

Glad you mentioned this I just bought a Samsung yesterday and it is also wrong and also in AZ. Annoying.

 

[GenXguy]

I think keeping the DLS is a good idea for safety reasons. We have small children and they would be spending more time at the bus stop in the dark without DLS. The neighbors have complained that its too dark when the kids are walking on the street to the bus for part of the year. I agree.

You have it backwards. It's actually darker at the morning bus stop with DST. So they would not be spending more time at the bus stop in the dark without DST. That is actually one of the excuses I hear for people who want to get rid of DST.

But I think that's a poor justification to eliminate DST, so I'm a big supporter of permanent DST for other reasons. Looks like more people support that than either of the other two options (permanent ST or continued switching).

 

[big-papa]

Yes, it's time for the semi-annual complaints about time changes, to then be forgotten about in a few days....

 

[GenXguy]

Why not leave it at 7:30AM until the sun catches up with you? Unless you are still working a day job of course.

I thought the same thing. lol. But that would be too easy. Better to just complain.

 

[Ronstar]

It's 2023. Phones you hold in your hand have a million+ more compute power than the rockets that went to the moon.

My Samsung A50 can't figure out what time it is. This morning I woke up in AZ yet my phone had skipped ahead an hour. It can't figure out crossing time zones when on a cross-country drive either. If I turn off network time and manually set the timezone it works. If I turn network time back on it moves from Phoenix (MST) to Denvery (MDT). My previous two Motorolas handled this with no problem.

I had a similar problem years ago with a Garmin watch. It displayed time based on the gps location of the previous gps start up. So if I crossed a time zone, the clock wouldn’t change until I started a walk or run on the watch. That initialized the gps at the new location. The watch recognized the new location and changed time accordingly.

Not sure how phones and watches handle time on the Navajo reservation in Az. The reservation is on DST.

 

[Gumby]

The actual shift has never really bothered me, but living here in New England on the Eastern edge of the Eastern time zone, I would prefer permanent daylight savings time (or a shift into the Atlantic time zone), because I prefer more light late on a winter day rather than early in the morning.

 

[audreyh1]

I thought the same thing. lol. But that would be too easy. Better to just complain.

Well being tied to a clock for things like morning walks makes little sense to me unless you have other regularly scheduled early morning obligations that are clock dependent. We frequently check sunrise and sunset times because our outdoor activities are driven by them. Different strokes…..