My say-so on making Daylight Savings Time, all the time!

     This morning was one of the lucky mornings I have to sit at home and watch my two favorite shows: The View and The Dr.'s .

     On the Dr.'s today, they talked about the hazards of something which, a.) I was surprised to hear brought up in the middle of January, just after we here in Michigan just got our first real dose of winter, and which b.) I had never before considered to be "hazardous".

     Daylight Savings Time.

     My Dr.'s, though...I consider them to be unfailing, and although I was reluctant at first, they - true to character - quickly converted me.

     I see now that we, as people in general, definitely experience more harm than good from the time shifts the occur with Daylight Savings.

     On the morning we lose an hour to Daylight Savings Time, the average person's sleep ends 40 minutes too soon. Dr. Jim Sears added on today's show that the average person is already sleeping an hour less than they should every night. He said it's all about REM sleep, which comes mostly at the end of the night, and all those people missing out on all that important sleep time causes a whole mess of problems every year.

     For one, Dr. Sears, who is a physician, pointed out, there are more heart attacks during the first week of Daylight Savings Time, than any other time of the year.

     Secondly, as the cartoon at the top mirthfully illustrates, the (often extra) loss of sleep can, to be blunt, f*ck with people. Especially, Dr. Sears said, the so-called night owls, who are used to staying up much later than the oversoon morning of DST allows.
     It's not an all-adult problem by any means either.
     Poor babies...how do you think they feel?? All of a sudden everything they know is questionable! Imagine waking up like, "Wasn't it nighttime still this time yesterday...?" How cruel....
                                              

 

     Dr. Sears said he gets more calls that first week from parents with babies who's sleep cycles can't seem to switch gears, than during any other time.

     So, I'm wondering, where are the benefits?

     I know the old bore about saving energy and all of that noise, but - and maybe this is just true where I live - the way I see it, energy is being used constantly, regardless of the hour...and I feel like it has been this way for some time now.
     Should we really still be operating around system first thought up in the time of, and by Benjamin Franklin? (No offense, Ben, you know my love for you runs deep.)




     Obviously, the Dr.'s and I are not the first people to question the need for a bi-annual time shift. In fact, many people have proposed doing away with Daylight Savings Time altogether many times already. Arizona and Hawaii have already completely forgotten the dusty tradition.

     My thinking follows a different avenue, though. I love Daylight Savings Time.

     It's beginning, and acclimating into Daylight Savings Time that I, along with everyone else, have had enough of.

     DST allows us, in the summer months, to make the most of the precious golden hours most of us are able to enjoy after the long work day. But who says we wouldn't enjoy those same hours all year long?

     And if we can get used to getting up early in the summertime feeling like getting up earrrrly...then who says we can't deal with mornings feelings like m*o*r*n*i*n*g*s! in the fall and winter and spring too?

     I say we invite Daylight Savings Time to stay with us all year long!

     I wonder who I could talk to about that...

     Maybe I could re-work this piece I'm writing now - take out my voice almost totally - into a feature story...and if I could get it to a point where it's worthy to print in the ESG, people might read it...and agree completely(!)...and we could spark a "Make Daylight Savings Time the Standard Time" brouhaha(!) that will make enough noise to steal the notice of our state legislators(!), and get them thinking, "...What the Hell is the good of this constant switching back and forth?"(!!!!)

     I have a good feeling about this. And we shall see, when I re-write what I'm ending...now.