Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
A group of researchers in the UK affiliated with the BSS (British Sleep Society) published a paper this week calling for the permanent abolition of Daylight Saving Time (DST) and adherence to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in large part because modern evidence suggests having that extra hour of sunlight in the evenings is worse for our health than we thought back in the 1970s when the concept was all the rage in Europe.
Not only does GMT more closely align with the natural day/light cycle in the UK, the boffins assert, but decades of research into sleep and circadian rhythms have been produced since DST was enacted that have yet to be considered.
The human circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle our bodies go through, drives a lot about our health beyond sleep. It regulates hormone release, gene expression, metabolism, mood (who isn't grumpier when waking up in January?), and the like. In short, it's important. Messing with that rhythm by forcing ourselves out of bed earlier for several months out of the year can have lasting effects, the researchers said.
According to their review of recent research, having light trigger our circadian rhythms in the mornings to wake us up is far more important than an extra hour of light in the evenings. In fact, contrary to the belief that an extra hour of light in the evenings is beneficial, it might actually cause health problems by, again, mucking about with the human body's understanding of what time it is and how we ought to feel about it.
"Disruption of the daily synchronization of our body clocks causes disturbances in our physiology and behavior … which leads to negative short and long-term physical and mental health outcomes," the authors said.
That, and we've just plain fooled ourselves into thinking it benefits us in any real way.
[...] And for the love of sleep, the researchers beg, don't spring forward permanently.
"Mornings are the time when our body clocks have the greatest need for light to stay in sync," said Dr Megan Crawford, lead author and senior lecturer in psychology at University of Strathclyde. "At our latitudes there is simply no spare daylight to save during the winter months and given the choice between natural light in the morning and natural light in the afternoon, the scientific evidence favors light in the morning."
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday October 30, @05:26PM (4 children)
Not exactly. Before '66 it was a state level issue, and apparently, it was chaos. In '66 the federal law become either do standard time year around or implement federal DST under strict federal rules, states choice of those two precise options.
To this day, since 1966, any state legislature can simply pass a law saying no more DST and they will remain in standard time permanently. I would like that in my state.
What does require federal action is it's not legal to implement year-around DST under the '66 federal law. Some states are trying to do it despite lack of federal approval. Of all the odd situations, the DOT is in charge of time, not NIST or something else. Some people have tried to change the '66 law, completely unsuccessfully.
I can see the justification for year around DST in the sense that we're only on "Standard" time for about 4 months of the year and "DST" for 8 months, roughly.
A lot of the social engineering has been ineffective. Originally DST was extended into November to sell more candy because Halloween trick or treat will have more sunlight and in theory that might bring more kids. Naturally, my local community responded by time shifting trick or treat to later in the night so its dark again LOL. So the feds only got a couple years of "more sunlight".
The death of the 9-5 and the 9-5 commute seem to have generated a lot of motivation to get rid of DST. The sooner the better as far as I'm concerned.
I think the main problem with "fixing" DST is there's no way to make campaign donations off the usual divide and conquer and scaremonger. Politicians make more money per hour off the usual nonsense than by fixing actual problems permanently, so don't expect this to be fixed any time soon.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday October 30, @05:44PM (2 children)
Not complete bullshit, but factually not the main reason for the extension.
~ from the totally reliable source "History.com [archive.org]"...
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday October 30, @06:59PM (1 child)
Fair enough, the golf courses have an obvious direct financial revenue interest, whereas the "National Confectioners Association" is slightly more indirect although still has an interest.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday October 30, @08:30PM
But really, these industries are piggy backing on the actual reason which was oil consumption and agriculture production, both areas where this one hour difference is now (and has been for many many years) irrelevant.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by acid andy on Wednesday October 30, @07:50PM
Interesting idea. That's a bit like pharmaceutical companies making more money from people staying ill and taking pills for life rather than getting cured, or even media magnates profiting from (coverage of) global chaos [wikipedia.org].
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