Today is Saturday, March 9, 2024. I’m sure you’re as angry as I am about this country keeping Daylight Saving Time and that tonight – or this morning – we move the clocks ahead an hour and lose one hour of sleep. I was laboring under the delusion that the U.S. Congress repealed Daylight Saving Time (DST) last year, but we still had to move clocks back an hour in November. So this legislation never passed, as I sorely learned last November. An online article in CNN by Katia Hester and Stephen Mays explains this ridiculous phenomenon which is entitled “Why the US kept Daylight Saving Time.”

The current March to November system that this country follows began in 2007, but the concept of “saving daylight” is much older. It seems that DST has its roots in train schedules, but it was put into practice in Europe and the United States to save fuel and power during World War I, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

During most of World War II, the U.S. kept DST permanent. The idea was put in place to conserve fuel and keep things standard. As the war came to a close in 1945, Gallup asked respondents how we should tell time. Only 17 percent wanted to keep what was then called “war time” all year.

During the energy crisis of the 1970s, we tried permanent DST again in the winter of 1973-1974. The idea again was to conserve fuel. It was a popular move at the time when President Richard Nixon signed the law in January 1974. But by the end of the month, Florida’s governor had called for the law’s repeal after eight schoolchildren were hit by cars in the dark. Schools across the country delayed start times until the sun came up.

In the United States, states are not required by law to “fall back” or “spring forward.” Those states that do not observe this irritating practice are Hawaii, most of Arizona, and some territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.

The twice-yearly switcheroo is annoying enough to lawmakers of all political stripes that the U.S. Senate passed legislation in March 2022 to make DST permanent. The bill passed by unanimous consent.

However, House lawmakers failed to vote on the bill in 2022. On March 2, 2023, a dozen senators forming a bipartisan group reintroduced the legislation that would end clock switching in favor of permanent DST.

As for the efficacy of this practice, studies over the last 25 years have shown the one-hour change disrupts body rhythms tuned to Earth’s rotation, adding fuel to the debate over whether having DST in any form is a good idea.

Studies also show that people have more car accidents when we lose an extra hour of sleep. There are also studies that show robberies decline when there is an extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day. We also know that people suffer more heart attacks at the start of DST. But what about our mental health? People seem to be happier when there is an extra hour of daylight.

Although saving energy was often put out as a reason to have DST, the energy saved isn’t much – if anything at all.

The bottom line here is that it’s not clear whether having that extra hour of sunlight at the end of the day versus the beginning is helpful. It just depends on who you are and what you want. And, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like DST in the United States is going away anytime soon. So get ready to adjust your clocks. I detest the practice, as you might know. I was looking forward to its termination, but it appears this is not happening anytime soon. So don’t forget to “spring forward” then.

I hope I won’t be too sleepy tomorrow after turning my clock ahead this morning. And the same, I hope, applies to you all.

Have a good Sunday.

Stay safe and be well.

Today we had to move things out of the kitchen to get ready for our contractor coming next week to do some work around the apartment. Here Atticus is sitting on top of this storage tray. I had to move potato chips, popcorn, and tortilla chips away from him.

Here Atticus is curled up in a dish drying rack.