Clock changing madness - YouLookFab Forum

Clocks here changed last weekend; with all of ours connected to various servers elsewhere, we didn’t even notice. I just thought the shortening of days was happening very fast. This morning I told my son that next week the sun would set just after he got out of school (because I thought clocks would be reset this weekend). Thank goodness I was wrong!

Daylight savings time never made sense to me, but it really doesn’t make sense here, where are less than 8 hours of daylight on the shortest day of the year. This week, sunset has been around 4:45. Towards the end of December, it will be before 4:00. Sunrise will be around 8. I guess the thought is to let people have a chance at daylight for at least one commute by entirely sacrificing the other? I really don’t see why the disruption twice a year is necessary—in the summer, there’s more than enough daylight to go ‘round. There are plenty of studies that show there are more car crashes, kids have a tougher time at school, and so on, in the days following a clock reset. Stop the madness!

Are clocks reset twice a year where you live? What do you think about it? Do you have a preference for one time or the other?

5 years ago

anchie

Veteran

But you know, this is actually the 'real' time. Stopping this would not prolong daylight in winter. I don't see the point in prolonging already longer summer daylight. But this may be the last year of doing it anyway.

Lynne

It always catches me off guard! Happily we don't do it where I live now.

RobinF

I hate it and complain about it every year. I don't care which time we go with, just pick it and stay with it. It isn't as bad now as it was with little kids but still!

JAileen

I like daylight savings time. I wish we would stay on it.

rachylou

I agree JAileen!

Barbara Diane

I need to stop complaining about how early it gets dark here now that I know how little daylight you have in winter.

I’ve already tempered my complaining about the cold since hearing about the winters of many of our intrepid YLFers.

Yes, we have it. I wish we left it so we had more daylight later in the day in winter. Without changing our clocks.

nemosmom

I'm with Robin! Pick a time and leave it alone!

Cardiff girl

I dunno,if we stopped doing this all the fun of watching the one person who forgot turn up late to church the day after will be gone forever.l like the fact that autumn and spring are marked so decisively .

Stagiaire Fash

Cardiff, but we’re losing that fun anyway—I completely missed that it was time to reset clocks, complained for a couple days about how quickly days were getting shorter, and then found out Apple, Google, et al had changed the clocks on me!

Robin, BD, JAileen, Rachylou and Nemo, absolutely—I’m with you 100%. Sounds like we’re building a little army here.

Anchie, yikes. Hadn’t thought of that. But the thing is, if we didn’t reset the clocks like this, people might change the starting and ending time of various activities to fit the “new” reality.

BD, what’s your latitude?

Just occurred to me that this might be an appropriate time/place to mention one of my favorite nerd websites. I can dawdle on it forever. https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/germany/berlin

cindysmith

I do not understand daylight savings time. Like, when did governments become the boss of time? Thank heaven my phone automatically adjusts its clock when the time comes, because I used to remain hopelessly confused for weeks after time changes (always discovering YET ANOTHER CLOCK THAT I HAD FORGOTTEN TO CHANGE). My phone is my only clock these days

Cindysmith, you too? High five! And govt became the boss of time when capital needed it to—railroad schedules were a nightmare when each location had its own local time zone. But I don’t think the current situation serves anyone.

Gigi

Hee hee, I was just thinking last week how much I think Daylight Savings Time is a good idea. I love it in the summer, because there is daylight late into the evening, so there is enough light for outdoor social gatherings.

I think in the US, it was the railroads that wanted a standardized time. I read that somewhere, anyway.

Jenn

(website)

JAileen, you're right. It's a fascinating story:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com.....erican-soc

https://time.com/5730146/standardized-time/

Jenn, ha ha! I probably read it in Smithsonian!

Stephen Kern also gives an interesting account of how railroads were behind standardized time in his book All That Is Solid Melts Into Air.

shiny

I am pretty sure I have a mild case of delayed sleep phase disorder so I have a love/hate thing going on with this. Sometimes it's awesome especially Fall. It easily re-sets me back on to normal people's time. Sometimes Spring helps re-set too, but not as easily as Falling back.

Then again I'm the person who adores going to Iceland or similar during the darker days when I can sleep with no sun waking me. Just sleep when I'm tired and wake when I'm rested. Ahhhh... heaven!

Anonymous

"Fall back" time is traditionally an antiholiday in this house. But this year I'm appreciating the light mornings so I can hike in the woods before work. If I can stay home, the dark afternoons aren't as big a deal. Why again did I insist on being out til 7 after work every day BC19?

I'm just glad I got an extra hour of sleep out of it. Work has been kicking my butt (we are selling WAY more firewood than produce these days).

And didn't Australia or somebody do a study that wound up showing that DST actually caused people to use MORE electricity?

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