Annual Daylight Savings Rant

Are you already running behind this morning? If so, you're just one of millions because the dreaded autumnal time change took place at 2AM this morning.

Personally, I hate DST and wish they'd go back to regular time. In today's world, there's really no reason to have it in today's world.

Although people blame credit Benjamin Franklin for the idea of daylight saving time, he was only joking when he wrote  the editor of the Journal of Paris and said it would get people out of bed earlier thus decreasing the use of candles and lamp oil.

THEY ALL CREATED DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

Apparently, New Zealand entomologist George Hudson in 1895 came up with what we know as daylight saving time, or DST. He thought a 2-hour time shift would offer more after-work hours of sun which would give him more daylight to hunt for insects in the summer. His idea was to move clocks ahead two hours in March and shift back two hours in October.

In 1905, British builder William Willett came up with his own complicated plan that changed time by 20 minutes every Sunday in April and then then moved them back every Sunday in September. Needless to say, that wasn't adopted.

It wasn't until 1916 in World War I when a DST plan was activated, and that was by the German Empire that set clocks ahead one hour to use less power for lighting and to save fuel for the war effort.

Other countries followed suit. When the war ended, they returned to standard time.

In 1918, the United States introduced a bill to create a seasonal time shift, but it lasted only 7 months until the bill was repealed. 

Then World War II began, and DST was brought back,  called War Time by then President Franklin Roosevelt. DST lasted until September 1945.

The idea of saving daylight was so popular that it was made permanent in the U.S. by the Uniform Time Act of 1966 with DST to begin the last Sunday in April and end the last Sunday in October. Through the years, DST has started earlier and ended later every few years.

DST AFFECTS HEALTH

It sounds weird that a seemingly simple time change of an hour can affect human health, but there are statistics and studies that bears this out. 

The risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular incidents increases on the day of the time change and in the days following. 

One study found a 24% increase in heart attacks on the Monday after the switch to DST.

DST can worsen existing mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and seasonal affective disorder and cause mood disturbances. It also can cause sleep deprivation, increase the risk of digestive diseases like colitis.

The time change increases the risk of fatal car accidents by 6% in the week after the time change. For those whose jobs involve physical labor, workplace injuries also increase.

All of this happens because the time change disrupts the body's internal clock, or circadian rhythm. 

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

The only thing that might help is to change your bedtime, take a nap in the afternoon, and get exposed to more light. Also, hope DST becomes so unpopular nationwide that they end this assualt on the circadian rhythm.

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