Can I make a simple suggestion? On Sunday morning — early morning, middle of the night, in fact– most Americans will turn the clocks ahead one hour, with the beginning of Daylight Saving Time.
My suggestion is that we make this last time that we do this.
Over the years, this biannual ritual — spring ahead, fall back — has been the one time when I allow a bit of “old man yells at cloud” to creep into my writing.
In fact, as you’ll see below, I’ve struggled for some time to find a single good thing to say about this system. (Although I’ll make up for that below, with some effort.)
Because while I’m all in favor of getting an extra hour of daylight during the spring and summer, losing it in the fall, and the disruption of recalibrating our clocks twice a year, leaves me to conclude this is a communal exercise in masochism.
In my daily newsletter, I suggested recently that if we have to switch the time like this, let’s at least choose a better moment than the middle of the night; in other words, spring ahead for an hour during the workday, rather than shortchange our sleep.
Readers liked that idea. They had some good suggestions; perhaps my favorite overall is Wednesday at 2:44 p.m.
But honestly, this is just arguing around the edges. We should go ahead on Sunday, turn the clocks ahead, but hold fast, and spend the next six months steeling ourselves against the idea of turning them back in the fall.
Granted, this change that I’m proposing would likely literally require an act of Congress, since there is a federal law, the Uniform Time Act of 1966, as amended, that sets the dates and times for the switch.
Individual states can opt out, but they have to do so affirmatively, with an act of their own legislatures.
Several have done so; I believe there’s a good chance that readers in Hawaii, Arizona, and the U.S. commonwealths (like Puerto Rico and Guam) will recognize this doesn’t really apply to them.
Perhaps it’s not far-fetched, however; a bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a bill to leave the country permanently on the daylight savings schedule, although “with COVID-19 dominating the agenda, [the issue] has been on the back-burner.”
All of which leaves me to conclude we’re probably not going to get rid of the change that easily.
So, on the bright side? Having thought about this thoroughly, I have identified one: We can all be grateful for the opportunity to be reminded to check the batteries in our smoke detectors.
Do that, at least, and hopefully it won’t be too long before we don’t have to give up an hour of sleep in the spring–and an early sunset in the fall–for the favor.
This article is from Inc.com
