Last night we all sprung forward for Daylight Savings Time, therefore losing an hour of sleep. Although I did better with the change today than I did last fall, I kept thinking to myself all day about how much I hate the time change. I tried to come with one rational reason why we would need it and just couldn't. Years ago, I thought that DST was created by Benjamin Franklin to help the farmers but recently found out that he actually suggested it in a satirical letter in his newspaper. He joked that changing time based on the sunrise and sunset would help him sleep better. The real truth was that Daylight Savings Time was actually implemented on March 31, 1918, in the United States during World War I to conserve fuel and resources, following the European model.
I am positive that this legislation was extremely important to the economy over one hundred years ago, but recently I have not read any studies that have proved that it still needs to be in effect today. In fact, I think that the time change is detrimental to the physical and mental health of Americans. Losing one hour of sleep isn't the problem, it's the week or two that it takes to adjust to the new time. It's almost like the effects of jet lag. Yes, it goes away, but it takes a while for most people to adapt.
Wouldn't it be nice to not have to deal with the tiredness and even anxiety that the time change can cause? With all of the new legislation that has been proposed lately, I wish someone would once and for all stop Daylight Savings Time. As crazy as the new administration is, maybe there is hope for those of us who spend almost a month out of the year trying to overcome the effects of outdated legislation. That would be one bill that I could support 100%.
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