Wednesday, March 13, 2013

ARGH! My Time Clock!

I really hate Daylight Savings Time.

We "sprang forward" this past weekend, and now that we've reached the middle of the week, I can only say I'm cranky and sullen.

I don't take change well.  My body clock gets adjusted with a lot of kicking and screaming, apparently.

Not everyone feels this way.  In fact, my friend Roxie wrote me an email on Monday saying, "I love this change.  I have so much more energy when the sun is up.  Summer is my best time, I think."

Grrrrrrr.

If you are one of those people, I sincerely apologize.  I just have to go on record as saying that I think the whole time change thing became ridiculous with the invention of electricity.



"Effects on seasonal adaptation of the circadian rhythm can be severe and last for weeks."

That's a fancy way of saying changing the time can be bad for you!

Clock shifts disrupt sleep and make what sleep you get less beneficial.  Heart attacks are significantly more common during the first three weekdays after a spring transition, according to one Swedish (2008) study.  Traffic accidents have also been shown to increase following clock shifts.  There is also a correlation to a rise in suicide rates. 

I heard all this on the news the other morning.  We're three work days in, people!  Hang on!

Weird, huh?

So why do we make the change?

The movie, National Treasure, attributes the invention of Daylight Savings Time to Benjamin Franklin.  However, this is not exactly true.  Ben did write a satirical letter to Parisians, while he was living in Paris, suggesting that they could economize on candles by rising with the morning sun and that the government could aid in this by ringing church bells and firing cannons at sunrise to wake everyone up.


Very funny, Ben.

At least the government didn't ring bells and fire cannons Monday morning.  

I blame my aversion to the Daylight Savings Time change to growing up in Arizona.  

Arizona don't have no stinkin' time change.

Hooray for Arizona.

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