UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: As North Americans adjust their bodies to last week’s time change, Life Detective springs ahead with an investigation of the daylight saving time phenomenon. How did it start? Should it be killed once and for all?
The current plot to kill Daylight Saving: On March 13, North Americans were forced to engage in the annual ritual of moving clocks forward by one hour. Also this week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to end twice-a-year time changes signaling the death of daylight saving time (“DST”). (Technically, the bill would make daylight saving time permanent, but DST’s life must be terminated to end the painful clock changes and grant DST eternal life.) How much do we hate time changes? So much that the Senate passed the bill unanimously! If passed by the House of Representatives and signed by the President, clock changes would breathe their last breath in spring of 2023. Thereafter, barring an 11th hour pardon, daylight saving time would become “standard time”: daylight starting later in the morning and lasting later into the evening would be the rule.
Daylight Saving was a child with a bright future
Former Director of the Time Services Department for the U.S. Naval Observatory (yep, that’s a thing), Dr. Demetrios Matsakis, told NBC News about the “birth” of modern day DST, what one might call “zero hour”:
“The history says that Benjamin Franklin came up with the idea, although the modern effort actually was by an Australian, George Hudson, in 1895 . . . who wanted more time after work to play . . . and he finally got it to happen in Australia in 1916.”
During World War I, many countries began experimenting with daylight saving principally on the theory that it would save energy. “With more daylight hours, people would spend more time outside and less inside, using up energy in their homes—or so supporters theorized.” Early in 1918, the United States implemented “war time”, a daylight saving initiative. Born at a time when the U.S. was more of an agrarian society, the lack of early morning sun did not play well with farmers. DST’s end coincided with the end of the War. Maybe “cancel culture” is not a new thing!
DST was but a toddler in its wee hours when it was first sent away after World War I. During World War II, the young adult version of DST was drafted back into service. Once again, as war ended in 1945, DST was again discharged. DST was a restless, unruly young adult from 1945-1965. The country had no unified policy on daylight saving. Instead, states were allowed to choose their own standard. By 1965, 71 of the U.S.’ largest cities practiced DST, while 59 did not. In 1966, DST finally settled down into adulthood albeit with a split personality. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act: 6 months of standard time and 6 months of daylight saving time.
DST’s Mid-life Crisis
The clearly defined split personality of DST’s adulthood quickly descended into a mid-life crisis. Specifically, the 1973 oil crisis caused Congress to try to reduce energy consumption by putting DST on trial. In January 1974, the dead of winter, year-round DST was implemented across the United States. Very soon after, Americans had a new crisis every morning. It was like Alaska across the “lower 48”. Not only was it darkest before the dawn, but the sun did not rise until an ungodly hour: 8:45 a.m. in Buffalo and nearly 9:00 a.m. in Seattle (not that anyone sees the sun much in January in either location.) Parents were sending kids to the bus stop with flashlights. A fervor grew over the risk to school children. Florida’s Governor asked Congress to repeal the law after a February that saw 8 school-age children killed in traffic fatalities. The reality was that pre-sunrise traffic fatalities did not significantly increase overall and late afternoon traffic fatalities had decreased compared to prior years. Nevertheless, year-round daylight saving provided no daily happy hour and in October 1974 Congress turned back the clock on DST’s mid-life crisis: DST was back to a mere split personality: standard time in winter, DST in summer.
Although it survived a dark time in 1974, DST’s mid-life crisis deepened over the coming years. The twice annual time changes got on everyone’s “one exposed nerve”. Like everything else in the modern era, technology and BIG conspired to add to DST’s mid-life crisis. BIG data showed that DST didn’t just make us groggy and create the sense that there weren’t enough hours in the day, but actually resulted in loss of productivity and more car accidents during the week after “springing forward”. Data also showed an increase in heart attacks, strokes, and cardiac events – some real clock stoppers. By 2020, America had grown weary of its twice a year visitor, now a cranky senior citizen. States began enacting their own symbolic “no time change” laws. But Congress needed to act for any real change to occur. This week, Congress began the process of saying to DST: “Okay, Boomer, your biological clock is ticking.”
Does sending DST to the afterlife mean we will be forever happy?
Before sending DST to the afterlife, we must pause to consider whether “time can heal all wounds.” For sure, the twice a year jolt to our systems will be relieved by a uniform time. You know the spring ahead drill:
- Sunday of the time change: “Geez, does it feel like 6 o’clock?”
- Monday: “I woke up okay, but I don’t feel hungry until an hour later than usual.”
- Tuesday: “I know it is 11 p.m., but I just can’t get to sleep.”
- Wednesday: “Man, it was tough getting up today.”
- Thursday: “I’m tired at 3 in the afternoon and eating dinner at 8 p.m.”
- Friday: “This sucks! Someone needs to do something about this time change thing.”
Of the 70 percent of Americans who want to end twice annual time changes, 40 percent favor making DST permanent and 30 percent want standard time to be permanent. The good news of DST’s passing into eternal life is that twice a year we will be relieved of annoying time changes. If your schedule appreciates more daylight later in the day, great. On the negative side, it will be really dark really late into the morning in winter. Ultimately, it is Congress who holds the “living will” and, if anyone can kill time, I’m pretty sure it is Congress. It appears Congress is leaning toward making DST permanent, ending the annoying DST time changes and granting the eternal light of DST. In our eulogy of DST, we can only conclude it lived a long and difficult life, but now . . . it is time.