Daylight savings must go. There is truly no point in changing the clocks every six months.
There is no benefit in confusing our bodies with the time (which actually probably doesn’t even exist).
People will say that daylight savings was implemented in the late 1700s to save energy. Guess what? THAT WAS 250 YEARS AGO. Sure, maybe back then it was useful, but alas, times have changed. Their thought was that it would lower the fuel costs and reduce the use of artificial lighting. Well, times have changed and it has been proven that the decrease in energy in the US during spring daylight savings is only 1 percent. Is that really worth it?
Is that 1 percent decrease in energy usage worth $434 million we spend on daylight savings in the United States each year? Yes that is correct. We spend an insane amount of money on daylight savings. In no way is it worth it.
This high annual cost is in part due to overly tired employees having work-related injuries because of daylight savings.
If people are looking for ways to save money, I’m pretty sure I can think of a way to save the United States 434 million dollars!!!
You guessed it; we could simply dispose of the monstrosity that is daylight savings.
Not only does it economically make sense, but it is also in no way beneficial to people’s health. Personally, changing the clocks really throws off my internal clock. I will admit, I feel pretty great when I wake up in the morning at 7:00, thinking it’s actually 8:00, but then I start getting tired at like 5:00 pm.
People with night shifts could get to work at 2:00 a.m., then have to rework that hour. My neighbor who is a nurse had to go to work the next day but her body clock was off and she’s tired by 6:00.
What about the instances where this could become actually dangerous? It can’t be safe for a brain surgeon to be in a long surgery the day after daylight savings and have their body clock telling them it’s an hour later than it actually is. Then what if they get tired during surgery??? Can’t be good.
More seriously, recent studies have shown that heart attacks on the Monday following the daylight savings switch are 25 percent more likely. There is a clear correlation between lack of sleep and heart attack rates.
So, it comes as no surprise that the spring daylight savings in which we actually lose one hour of sleep causes a spike in heart attacks.
So, it baffles me that people will try to make the argument that daylight savings is, in fact, beneficial to our health.
Some studies will even show that there are higher suicide rates around the time that we switch the clocks.
Sure, it may make us a little less tired when we wake up after fall daylight savings thinking it is 9:00 when it is really 8:00.
But is that small luxury truly worth the detriments some people’s health faces all because we decided it is a necessity that we change our clocks by an hour twice a year?
Some countries (mostly those near and below the equator) don’t even participate in daylight savings. Even the United States’ own Hawaii and Arizona do not observe daylight savings.
In my opinion, they are ahead of their time. After considering its health risks, high costs, and overall pointlessness, I hope that more states will move to get rid of daylight savings.
As far as I’m concerned, it would in no way to be difficult to change this insane societal norm that has been forced upon us.
It actually seems quite simple. We just stop changing the clocks, then poof all the health and economic problems it causes would vanish.
