By Cheryl Melton
As a flight attendant, I was always waking up in different time zones. But this biannual routine of setting the clocks up (or back) an hour really messes up my routine. Ben Franklin saw the financial benefit of rising with the sun and retiring early. This would save on candles. Franklin had a habit of staying up late and playing cards. He usually slept until noon. In an essay he pokes fun at his bad habit by suggesting several things to get people up at sunrise such as tax on window shutters, rationing candles and even ringing church bells at sunrise to get people up. He never proposed resetting clocks by one hour.
In 1918 the U.S. first enacted Daylight Savings Time (D.S.T.) to save energy. Many farmers were against this change. It was helter-skelter the time zones even within state boundaries. Thus in 1966, the Uniform Time Act set up time zone boundaries in the country. Arizona, Hawaii, and the American territories do not observe DST. In a March 2022 (Monmouth University poll), 61% of Americans would prefer making D.S.T. the permanent time.
Why have the hassle of changing clocks twice a year? Or the hassle of a starving dog wondering why his supper is now an hour later? It is nice having light at the end of the day to enjoy the evening.
Retail stores love D.S.T. as it means people are out and about shopping. It seems to hurt drive-in movie theatres as later sunsets mean less night movies. In 1966 there were more than 4,000 drive-in movie theaters. Today, only about 300 remain. Some feel that D.S.T. meant doom for this industry. D.S.T. was not shown to cause decreased energy use. In a study in California, there was only a 0.2% decrease in energy use during D.S.T. Changing back and forth can even effect people's health. Research suggests more heart attacks, car accidents, mental problems, and immune-related issues on the day after the March spring forward change.
On March 15, 2022, the US Senate unanimously approved a bill that would make DST permanent as of Nov. 20, 2023. It has not yet been approved by the House or signed by President Biden. The delay is meant to give transportation providers time to make schedule changes. We need to get our sanity back and change to D.S.T. year round.