Daylight savings time really only helped people many years ago. Now it just irritates everyone. The irritation for me is the arbitrary selection of the time when we shift all our clocks forward or backward. It really irks me that the date of this time change can be adjusted by a government and force that change on the rest of the world. It was all started to help people cope with the inexorable march that sunset has as we approach winter. It's inescapable if you are north or south of the tropical latitudes.
One thing that I have noticed is that the daylight savings time is hardest on my pets. They are used to mealtime being at 9pm, but take tonight, right after the daylight savings time change has happened, they know approximately that they get fed at a certain time and while the clock reads 8pm, they are pestering us for food because last night 8pm was really 9pm and it was time for dinner. It's impossible for us to explain to our pets why we pick two days of the year when we all collectively agree that the time we think it is really isn't the time it actually is.
All of this silliness is tempered by the fact that all of our time demarcations are wholly made up concepts. When did it start? Thanks to the Church we've marked zero at a certain point in the past. Then we get upset here and there when some of us think that time is all run out, that the second coming is upon us, it's all stupid and made up and utterly contrived.
So I don't think there is room any more in our society for daylight savings time. We should establish the time zones permanently, so if it's going to be GMT-5, then lets stay with that and let the seasons do as they will, sunrise and sunset when they come and we will cope.
Speaking of coping, I can't imagine how these time shifts affect people who are suffering from seasonal affective disorder. Perhaps by letting this anachronistic self-deception cease and people can cope with the change in the seasons. Because for those suffering from SAD, it's gotta be a little relief to not have the hours bouncing around when the changes in the seasons are so pronounced. The only other solution for those people would be to migrate towards the tropical latitudes.
So, for daylight savings time – off with it's head! 🙂
