Back to Standard Time

Maple“Spring forward…Fall Back” – the “Fall Back” happened yesterday. It’s the twice-a-year mass coordination drill to switch to and from daylight savings time. It’s been happening for as long as I can remember (although according to Wikipedia, the Federal standard in the US didn’t happen until 1966…so when I was young and living in Oklahoma and then Texas, we didn’t switch). I can remember a conversation at a great aunt’s house about an old wall clock that she left on standard time because it was too fragile or difficult to re-set so frequently.

 The ‘fall back’ is easier than the ‘spring forward.’ Sleeping an hour later than usual is not as hard as waking up an hour earlier! Yesterday I didn’t quite sleep a whole hour later but I did manage 30 minutes and today my internal clock is re-set for the mornings. I am still not as sleepy at the new bedtime though!

I am a morning person so the earlier sunlight right now is appealing. Soon the days will be short enough that it will dark (again) when I get up. For now – we are enjoying the fall color and the new skew of the day to give us earlier sunlight!Oak

Daylight Savings Time

Aargh! Changing our clocks by an hour – forward in the spring, back in the fall – is a massive synchronized exercise. Almost every state in the US does it even though more and more studies have shown that its supposed ‘benefits’ are outweighed by the negative impacts that arise from simultaneously messing with the whole population’s circadian rhythm.

This year I tried to go to be a little early on Saturday night and I did wake up about the normal time (according to the clock…so really an hour early) on Sunday morning. It was very dark. I was rested but it was a downer in winter darkness during my breakfast. Every time we change is annoys me a little more.

I can remember a great aunt that didn’t change the main clock in her house because it was too hard to set – or that was her excuse. Now I realize that there are too many ‘clocks’ in our house and cars that change automatically on their own so I can’t make a similar decision.

Hopefully more states will decide to stay on either standard or daylight savings all year long…and then the whole country will make the decision. The status quo is not healthy!