Daylight Savings Time

[DrFaroohk]

So the most popular answer for why we do this is for the farmers. Give's them an extra hour or something to plant their corn and plow the fields and shovel horseshit.

Which doesn't make sense to me, because the only thing that's different is what time the clock says. The length of the daylight hours doesn't change simply because the time is set differently. And what to farmers care about the time anyway? They just care if its light or dark.

[BroomJockey]

It's not for farmers. At least, not any more. It's to save energy. By having the clocks an hour ahead during the summer, it's an hour later before you need to turn on your lights.

My issue with it is, yes, we save however many millions of barrels of oil, but the week after each switch has the highest incidence of fatal accidents in the entire year, with a huge upswing in non-fatal ones as well, since everyone's sleep schedule is thrown off. We're willing to trade barrels of oil for human lives? Well, shoulda seen that one coming.

[HYHYBT]

The solution, then, would be to stay on DST year-round.

[BroomJockey]

Except that doesn't work for winter, then. The sun's already not rising until 8:30am. If we don't roll the clocks back, the sun wouldn't rise until nearly 10am in the dead of winter. That also uses a lot of energy.

[blas87]

I hate DST in the fall because not only is it dark out until 8 am or later, but it's also dark out at nearly 5 pm......

If that's depressing for a night person, I can only imagine how it feels for someone who works 8-4 or 9-5.

[MaggieTheCat]

If that's depressing for a night person, I can only imagine how it feels for someone who works 8-4 or 9-5.

I remember one lady at the call center where I used to work. Her normal schedule was 7:30am-3:30pm. But she liked to do overtime whenever we had it available, and there's usually a lot available starting right about now in preparation for the holidays. So a lot of times she'd work until 5 or 6 at night. Yeah, she often commented that she'd come to work in the dark and go home in the dark. That must have sucked.

[Cat]

I hate DST in the fall because not only is it dark out until 8 am or later, but it's also dark out at nearly 5 pm......

If that's depressing for a night person, I can only imagine how it feels for someone who works 8-4 or 9-5.

It's hell, I work 8-5 and have SAD.....and I'm not near a window in my office.

[protege]

It's hell, I work 8-5 and have SAD.....and I'm not near a window in my office.

Been there, done that. The first office I worked in had windows. In fact, the entire wall behind me was glass. Not long after that, we moved a few blocks...and had no windows at all. Summer wasn't too bad, but winter was awful. Imagine getting to work when it's still dark, and going home when it was dark. If I didn't get outside, or at least to the building's lobby, I wouldn't see sunlight all day long. Trust me, it sucked

[thrifty]

Another person who worked 8-5 in the winter, and yes it does suck. I literally moved to an office that was really cold just to get the sunlight from the small window. And honestly the coldness was worth what having natural sunlight did for my mood.

[Kalli]

I love daylight savings.

It's the only time of year when I can hang out a load of washing before work and it will be dry when I can get home.

There's also time after work to mow the lawn, clean the pool, water the garden, etc. All the daytime jobs I can't do without daylight savings unless it's Sunday.

the week after each switch has the highest incidence of fatal accidents in the entire year, with a huge upswing in non-fatal ones as well, since everyone's sleep schedule is thrown off.

Hmmm, I'm skeptical of this claim. Do you have a link or anything showing statistics of this?

[BroomJockey]

Hmmm, I'm skeptical of this claim. Do you have a link or anything showing statistics of this?

http://www.nodaylightsavingqld.com/archives/sleep.htm

Says there was a 6.6% increase in accidents following the spring change. If you do a google search for "daylight saving time accident rates" you find a ton of articles.

And to everyone, it's "saving," not "savings."

[Kalli]

http://www.nodaylightsavingqld.com/archives/sleep.htm

Says there was a 6.6% increase in accidents following the spring change. If you do a google search for "daylight saving time accident rates" you find a ton of articles.

Thanks for the trouble, but I find the language in that link very exclusive (read: I'm way too stupid to read that thing), and after some googling to try and find more nub-friendly statistics, I can see that quite a bit of research has been done on the topic. However...

1) There are a number of concerns about the validity of these studies, raised by other scientists (although I suppose any statistical study has scientists somewhere saying "this study is retarded")

2) I generally give very little weight to studies like this, unless they show an overwhelming trend or a result that simply cannot be denied. Results like "there MAY be a 6% increase, if you look at it this way, and do the calculations this way exactly.... sort of" leave way too much doubt about things like ulterior motives, result manipulation and poor data analysis.

Having said all this, I can definitely see your point. I'm just seeing it through slightly narrowed eyes :P

[blas87]

DTS in the fall increases car accidents, especially with deer

We lose an hour of sunlight and can only rely on seeing their glowing eyes or hoping to see their stupid bodies before they make contact with our vehicles and mess them up.

[Pedersen]

DTS in the fall increases car accidents, especially with deer

Well, if Digital Theater Systems, Inc. is causing accidents in the fall, maybe you should turn off the radio?

Though I completely fail to see how the deer figure into it at all. Unless you're fighting with them about what station to listen to?

[blas87]

Son of a bitch dumbass keyboard.....nevermind, I give up.