I, Amber Brown, realize it is never going to be easy to get my friend to care about time.
from It’s Justin Time, Amber Brown
written by Paula Danzinger
illustrated by Tony Ross
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2001
Here’s the truth. Daylight Savings Time moves an extra hour of daylight to the end of the day.
And here’s the whole truth. We pay for that hour of daylight with the loss of one whole hour. At 2:00 a.m. March 8, we all rolled the hands of our clocks around one full turn to make them say 3:00. a.m. March 8 was a 23-hour day.
Personally, I moved the hands of my clock at 9:30 p.m., before I called the day over.
I like daylight as much as anyone, but what happened to that hour? Does anyone really know? Does anybody even care?
Well, the way I see it, that hour is in limbo until the first Sunday in November when we all move the clock hands counter-clock-wise and re-place that limbo hour to create a 25-hour day.
Representative Vern Buchanan of Florida introduced The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 (HB 69) on January 4 of that year. Fifteen cosponsors from ten different states and both political parties signed on. The Act would make DST permanent, so we’d all stay sprung forward. No more time changing in the fall.
On March 9, 2021, Sen. Marco Rubio introduced another version, S.623. It passed the Senate on March 16, 2022 and has been languishing in the House of Representatives ever since.
Introducing permanent DST is nothing new.
Benjamin Franklin sent a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris in 1784 suggesting Parisians move their clocks ahead one hour in the dark days of winter while they slept to better enjoy the short daylight hours more fully. He proposed the money saved in buying candles would be enormous. Nothing came of his suggestion; most people think it was said in jest.
Congress has been debating the idea since adopting the Standard Time Act of March 1918. It set summer DST from March 31, 1918, to October 27. The idea was unpopular, especially with farmers. More daylight at the end of the day meant more darkness in the early morning hours when they did their milking and other morning chores.
After WWI, Woodrow Wilson abolished the law, leaving the option to continue fooling around with Time up to individual localities.
Then in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt established year-round DST. He called it “War Time Hours.” It lasted until the last Sunday in September, 1945.
From then until 1966, it was up to the various states or cities to follow DST or not and establish their own start and end dates. As you can imagine, that led to a complicated patchwork of chronology. Imagine truckers, shippers, and railway engineers delivering goods across many states. Or the arrangements you’d need to make to phone friends and loved-ones who live far away.
In 1966, the transportation industry asked for federal legislation to sort out the mess and in 1967, the Uniform Time Act became the law of the land. Various dates have been in use since 1967 and for now, at least, clocks spring ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March (and will fall back one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, 11/1/26). The Department of Transportation was charged with enforcing the law.
States were allowed to exempt themselves. Hawai’i and parts of Arizona do not observe DST. Neither do the US territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands.
Turns out DST is more than an inconvenience.
According to The Sleep Foundation, even though the effects of DST subside gradually after a few weeks, the move has been linked to a “greater risk of mood disturbance, suicide, and being involved in traffic accidents.
Studies reported by timeanddate.com have also linked the time change to increased car accidents and workplace injuries
And
They also say the nighttime crime rate diminishes. We enjoy a 7% decrease in robberies.
Pedestrian fatalities decrease by 13% in the dawn and dusk hours.
I wonder, could these decreases be attributed to more daylight in general? After all, the hours of daylight will continue to increase until the Summer Solstice, Sunday, June 21, 2026.
I don’t plan to move to Hawai’i, (or Arizona or any of the US territories, for that matter) but I would like to stop trying to fool Father Time.
I’m reading Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson (Scribner, 2021). When loggers in California clash with environmentalists who want to save the redwoods, a woman inadvertently starts a conflict with her husband’s and his coworkers’ livelihood
-—stay curious! (and enjoy an evening walk)
from It’s Justin Time, Amber Brown
written by Paula Danzinger
illustrated by Tony Ross
G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2001
Here’s the truth. Daylight Savings Time moves an extra hour of daylight to the end of the day.
And here’s the whole truth. We pay for that hour of daylight with the loss of one whole hour. At 2:00 a.m. March 8, we all rolled the hands of our clocks around one full turn to make them say 3:00. a.m. March 8 was a 23-hour day.
Personally, I moved the hands of my clock at 9:30 p.m., before I called the day over.
I like daylight as much as anyone, but what happened to that hour? Does anyone really know? Does anybody even care?
Well, the way I see it, that hour is in limbo until the first Sunday in November when we all move the clock hands counter-clock-wise and re-place that limbo hour to create a 25-hour day.
Representative Vern Buchanan of Florida introduced The Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 (HB 69) on January 4 of that year. Fifteen cosponsors from ten different states and both political parties signed on. The Act would make DST permanent, so we’d all stay sprung forward. No more time changing in the fall.
On March 9, 2021, Sen. Marco Rubio introduced another version, S.623. It passed the Senate on March 16, 2022 and has been languishing in the House of Representatives ever since.
Introducing permanent DST is nothing new.
Benjamin Franklin sent a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris in 1784 suggesting Parisians move their clocks ahead one hour in the dark days of winter while they slept to better enjoy the short daylight hours more fully. He proposed the money saved in buying candles would be enormous. Nothing came of his suggestion; most people think it was said in jest.
Congress has been debating the idea since adopting the Standard Time Act of March 1918. It set summer DST from March 31, 1918, to October 27. The idea was unpopular, especially with farmers. More daylight at the end of the day meant more darkness in the early morning hours when they did their milking and other morning chores.
After WWI, Woodrow Wilson abolished the law, leaving the option to continue fooling around with Time up to individual localities.
Then in 1942, Franklin Roosevelt established year-round DST. He called it “War Time Hours.” It lasted until the last Sunday in September, 1945.
From then until 1966, it was up to the various states or cities to follow DST or not and establish their own start and end dates. As you can imagine, that led to a complicated patchwork of chronology. Imagine truckers, shippers, and railway engineers delivering goods across many states. Or the arrangements you’d need to make to phone friends and loved-ones who live far away.
In 1966, the transportation industry asked for federal legislation to sort out the mess and in 1967, the Uniform Time Act became the law of the land. Various dates have been in use since 1967 and for now, at least, clocks spring ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the second Sunday in March (and will fall back one hour at 2:00 a.m. on the first Sunday in November, 11/1/26). The Department of Transportation was charged with enforcing the law.
States were allowed to exempt themselves. Hawai’i and parts of Arizona do not observe DST. Neither do the US territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands.
Turns out DST is more than an inconvenience.
According to The Sleep Foundation, even though the effects of DST subside gradually after a few weeks, the move has been linked to a “greater risk of mood disturbance, suicide, and being involved in traffic accidents.
Studies reported by timeanddate.com have also linked the time change to increased car accidents and workplace injuries
- A Swedish study found that the risk of having a heart attack increases in the first three weekdays after switching to DST in the spring.
- Tiredness induced by the clock change is thought to be the main cause for the increase in traffic accidents on the Monday following the start of DST.
- On Mondays after the start of DST there were more workplace injuries, and the injuries were of greater severity compared to other Mondays.
- The start of DST has also been linked to miscarriages for in vitro fertilization patients.
And
- A Danish study found an 11% increase in depression cases after the time change. The cases dissipated gradually after 10 weeks.
- An Australian study found that male suicide rates increased on the days after the spring and fall DST shift.
They also say the nighttime crime rate diminishes. We enjoy a 7% decrease in robberies.
Pedestrian fatalities decrease by 13% in the dawn and dusk hours.
I wonder, could these decreases be attributed to more daylight in general? After all, the hours of daylight will continue to increase until the Summer Solstice, Sunday, June 21, 2026.
I don’t plan to move to Hawai’i, (or Arizona or any of the US territories, for that matter) but I would like to stop trying to fool Father Time.
I’m reading Damnation Spring by Ash Davidson (Scribner, 2021). When loggers in California clash with environmentalists who want to save the redwoods, a woman inadvertently starts a conflict with her husband’s and his coworkers’ livelihood
-—stay curious! (and enjoy an evening walk)
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