Why Do We Have Daylight Saving Time?
Daylight saving time is over for this year. It started on March 10, 2019 and ended on November 3rd. The act of turning clocks back one hour recently happened and everyone is feeling it. This event has many parents shaking their heads in discontent. It is only a sixty-minute time difference to one’s schedule. However, when parents are dealing with children ranging in age from newborns to teenagers it has the power to derail a household.
Why Does It Exist?
Daylight Saving is actually a good thing. According to an article by Popular Mechanics, Daylight Saving Time (DST) is not just a two-day phenomenon occurring in fall and spring. It is actually an eight-month stint. A duration of time when the adjusted clock give us more sunshine and Vitamin D exposure. A great thing to counteract seasonal depression disorder and too much time indoors. I just think the autumn time change hurts because it is so dark so early. We reap the benefits of DST and more sunlight when we “spring ahead” with the time change.
Science Says the Time Change is Good
Dan Nosowitz, stated in Popular Mechanics, “Absent DST, for eight months per year our days would not be structured to enjoy the most sunlight possible.” He discussed how working parents would miss out on sunlight. The reason being that darkness would occur around the time they got home from the office after a typical 9am-5pm workday. The same can be said for children in after-school activities, as they often arrive home later and would not get a chance to play outside due to the sun’s early evening disappearance.
Nosowitz went so far as to make this declaration of DST, “It is a human attempt to force our lives to fit the natural world in a more sensible way, to lifehack ourselves into a pattern of living that benefits our minds and bodies. DST is both a rebellion against the clock and an acceptance that we are all slaves to the clock.”
Daylight Saving Time takes a lot of heat for being a strange and disruptive practice. It was enacted as a way for people to enjoy more outdoor time and to be less constricted by darkness. Keep repeating this right now and be thankful in the spring and summer for longer days.
Fall Back in Time
Kids thrive on structure. Therefore, it is inevitable that a time change is going to cause some stress to a household’s routine. It is important to remember that in a week’s time (or less), most everyone will be used to the new clock.
There will, of course, be a few chaotic days of sleepiness because bedtimes do not seem legitimate and wake-up calls appear to be displaced. It is important to remember that these confusing days surrounding DST will be short-lived. I also think the drawbacks pale in comparison to the benefit of longer evening hours filled with sunlight come summertime. Plus the fall time change means brighter mornings for the bus stops and morning commute.
Daniel Lewin, Ph.D., associate director of sleep medicine at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C. was quoted in an article for Parents.com saying, “The time change can cause such short-term changes in your child’s mood, but your understanding and support will help him or her adjust a little better.”
Stay strong parents and when in doubt, help yourself to more coffee. Being energized will get a person through the shorter sunny days and longer dark evenings.
A version of this article by Kelly was first published by Parent.co / Mother.ly in Spring of 2017.