Daylight Saving Time...ugh

        

       

It's 5:30 pm and it's almost dark outside. And none of us will probably sleep well for a week. But who should we be angry at? Farmers? The government? Ben Franklin? Frankly, I have no idea...I just grumble about changing the clocks every fall and spring and deal with my screwy sleep schedule as fallout. So today's blog is about why the dreaded clock change. I'm turning to the research guru itself " the Internet", obviously, and hope to find some marginally accurate answers. And yes, it's Saving, not Saving(s) time.

      

Benjamin Franklin did not in fact originate the idea of moving clocks forward. It seems he did not like to wake up early. He apparently penned a satirical essay which suggested that Parisians could save millions of dollars for the economy by using sunshine instead of candles. For this reason he is credited with "inventing" daylight saving time when really he just proposed that people change their sleep schedules.

                                

Daylight saving time was first fully implemented by Germany who embraced it in order to conserve coal during WWI. The United Kingdom Russia and the U.S. would soon follow. Worldwide, energy consumption savings are between 0.5% and 1% during daylight savings time. Worth the hassle? Hmmmm...

                                  

     

Not the farmers. Changing the clocks was never intended to benefit farmers as many people think. It was first implemented in the United States as a means of energy conservation and it was greatly opposed by farmers. Farmers schedules are generally dictated by the sun and not the clock so it was very disruptive to their schedules. It also disrupted the schedules of hired help as they had moved towards a tendency to work by the clock and not by the sun. Also dairy cows and other animals did not adapt well to be milked an hour earlier or an hour later to allow for altered shipping and delivery schedules. 

        

So who suffers the most from daylight saving time? Apparently it's pedestrians. In 2001 researchers found that at say, 6pm,  65 pedestrians were killed by car crashes the week before daylight savings time ended and 227 were killed in the week following. Other studies of shown a 186% jump in the risk of being killed by a car for every mile walked when dusk arrives earlier.

                                   

     

Also regarding health, changing the clocks has mixed effects. In a fixed work schedule it'll provide more afternoon sunlight for exercise and outdoor recreational activities but researchers identified an increase in the risk of heart attack by 10% in the 3 weeks following clock changes, possibly due to stress cause from disruption of sleep both in quantity and efficiency. Circadian rhythms can take weeks to adjust. 

       

So thank you, oh great and undoubtedly accurate internet resources- Wikipedia, history.com and weather.com. They're all legit, right? After an hour of my life wasted I realized....It seems the real reason for daylight saving time is to make good use of daylight. What a letdown.