Daylight Saving Time - is it a good thing?

[Steve MacDowall]

Orange: DST no longer used
Red: DST never used
Blue: DST used

"Daylight Saving Time" is used to take advantage of more daylight or intended for saving daylight.

In the U.S. and in Canada, Daylight Saving Time (please note it is not Daylight Savings Time nor daylight Saving Times) begins each year at 2 am on the second Sunday of March. It started on March 8 in 2009. To start daylight saving time, move clocks ahead one hour.
Daylight Saving Time ends each year at 2 am on the first Sunday of November. To start Standard Time or end Daylight Saving Time, move your clocks back one hour. In 2009, the time shifting occurs at 2 am on November 1.
In 2010, Daylight Saving Time begins on March 14 and ends on November 7.

In Europe: Daylight Saving Time ends on October 23, 2009
All countries in Europe except Iceland observe DST, and most change on the same date and time, starting on the last Sunday in March and ending on the last Sunday in October.

Daylight Saving Time Wikipedia

Daylight saving time around the world Wikipedia

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[Richard Penney]

Hi All,
Every year there are seven different ways to describe the clock settings. To make it simple, do I sleep an extra hour?? Or, do I get up earlier by sun time??
-Richard

[Steve MacDowall]

'fall back, spring forward' is the only way I know that I might remember - Steve

[Bill]

Greetings,
I have long thought about time and DST in particular. Some years ago, I was in a career occupation that caused me to change my time by 12 hours, so that work time for my boss was during the day and reality was it was in the middle of the night. Time truly is relevant. In my present occupation I am on shift work and deal with time issues, and have to sometimes "calculate" the right time for my logs and other time not. Living in the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone, DST gives me a very late sunset in the summer and sometimes it's still light out when I have to retire for the night.

My feeling is that the change of hours we observe, to and from Daylight Saving Time, is a lot of trouble and more than it is worth. It seems to me that the true use of DST is to save some people from having to shift their waking/work starting/ending times to meet the change of day as the day gets shorter and, subsequently, longer. It is truly noticeable when I make my way both to and from work in the dark in the wintertime. I would prefer the gradual adjustment that mother nature affords me than the sudden synthetic manipulation of time we have.

Bill

[Steve MacDowall]

very nicely put - I find when I’m talking to people in Europe on this topic they feel the same way as you do. Thanks for your insight - Steve

[Penelope]

DST is miserable. I never feel right until I get my hour back in the fall. We are NOT made for the clock, but are part of nature and our bodies respond to the pull of the moon, the turn of the earth, the change of seasons, light, night. . .whether electric lights or clocks tell us otherwise. I believe that much depression and other related diseases are caused because we don't listen to our bodies, or nature, but allow these artificial cultural absurdities to rule us.

Think about how when a bad snowstorm strikes, how many people throw common sense out the window and insist they must go to "work" and end up spending the day stuck in a snow bank. How productive is that? Stupid, is my vote. DST fits in there. If you milk cows, I bet their schedule doesn't change with the clock . . .

--Penelope, grumpy

[Steve MacDowall]

oh you are a little grumpy - I love the example of the cows - take care, Steve

[Richard Penney]

Hi Penelope!
I agree with your synopsis!
-Richard

[Anuradha Sarup]

Hi :-)
We don't have daylight saving in India but we manage pretty ok without. Being in the temperate zone the difference isn't so marked for us anyway and for the rest I find, the body clock and light sensors works well if the bedroom window curtains are left open at night :-)