I am okay with it getting dark at 8:30 in the Summer because that would mean it would get dark at 6 PM in December instead of 5 PM. I hate going to work in the dark and driving home in the dark from December 1 to Jan 15.

In the 1960's DST was started to give people more daylight after they got home from work. It was not for farmers. Most farmers were up at the crack of dawn and worked until dark, whether it is standard or fast time. More daylight at the end of the day for farmers, come on, are you that far removed from the farm to believe that?

 

I remember farmers hating the changing of the clocks.

As someone who has diagnosed sleep problems...I can tell you that having to shift my sleep schedule by an hour in one direction or another will thoroughly disrupt what sleep schedule I manage to maintain for at least a week. I'm sure I represent one of MANY in saying that it's a real difficulty to me for almost two entire weeks each year. Add to that the fact that those time changes have been proven to diminish work productivity on a nationwide level in the days and even weeks following the time changes, and then look at that from the perspective of a business owner who has to pay for that drop in productivity, and you might be in favor of getting rid of DST.

I ran multi million dollar operations and never saw any correlation to a drop off in productivity. However when the time changed in the spring sales picked up due to people being out later in the evenings.

In the 1960's DST was started to give people more daylight after they got home from work. It was not for farmers. Most farmers were up at the crack of dawn and worked until dark, whether it is standard or fast time. More daylight at the end of the day for farmers, come on, are you that far removed from the farm to believe that?

 

I remember farmers hating the changing of the clocks.

 

I agree with that, but a lot of farmers these days also have a full time job and that extra daylight is precious after they get home from their 8-5 job.

 

But this isn't a farming issue. It's more about the economy and giving people more time after work to do more before it gets dark.

I am okay with it getting dark at 8:30 in the Summer because that would mean it would get dark at 6 PM in December instead of 5 PM. I hate going to work in the dark and driving home in the dark from December 1 to Jan 15.

That would have a lot of kids standing beside the road waiting for buses in pitch darkness between 6:30 and 7:30 if time didn't change in the fall.

 

I also hated getting off of work in the dark in the winter, it stinks!

I hate having to go to bed when it's still daylight! Come late May into June, it's downright depressing. :lol:

I remember farmers hating the changing of the clocks.

I remember that too. It messed up the livestock and the cow milking schedule. Cheeseheads did not like it.

I ran multi million dollar operations and never saw any correlation to a drop off in productivity. However when the time changed in the spring sales picked up due to people being out later in the evenings.

 

U.S. economy lost $433,982,548 because of daylight saving time - SmartPlanet

Several thoughts on DST. 1) I remembered being somewhat amazed that 1st summer of DST when it was still light at 9:30 2) I wish they would chose one, standard or DST and leave it there, no switching back and forth. 3) One summer the counties south of the 3 northern counties tried to stay on standard time, but I recall that Pendleton quickly went to DST. 4) Before WWII all of Ky. was on Central, as I was told. One older fellow that worked for us on the farm stayed on Central Time his entire life and also never moved up on DST as well. During the summer he was 2 hours behind everyone, but he was always there on time.

In the 1960's DST was started to give people more daylight after they got home from work. It was not for farmers. Most farmers were up at the crack of dawn and worked until dark, whether it is standard or fast time. More daylight at the end of the day for farmers, come on, are you that far removed from the farm to believe that?

 

I remember farmers hating the changing of the clocks.

Um, no. Milked at 4:30am and won't ever forget it. However, I was always under the assumption it was for businesses who relied on farmers because they were doing what they do same time every day apart from a clock. But I may be wrong.

I hate having to go to bed when it's still daylight! Come late May into June, it's downright depressing. :lol:

 

But if DST applied year round you would have daylight at 5 a.m. in the summer. Besides with DST and being on the far west side of the time zone you can get a full round of golf in in the summer - after work.

Being from the Mid Atlantic states and the far eastern part of the time zone, I loved DST. Without it, even in the summer it would've gotten dark at 7:30. I always hated winter when it would start getting dark between 4:30 and 5pm. When I moved out here, it took me a long time to adjust to how dark it always is early in the morning (sun is usually up by 6: or 6:30am back east), and daylight until almost 10pm early in the summer. Because we are on the far western part os the time zone, DST is less necessary IMO. Still, it doesn't bother me one way or the other now, my internal clock has me up before sunrise and sleepy by 10 or 11 regardless. Still my favorite weekend of the year is when we "fall back" and my least is the day we "spring forward". My worst spring forward day ever was coming back after a week in Vegas the day we sprung forward. It took me a week to get my sleep schedule fixed.

U.S. economy lost $433,982,548 because of daylight saving time - SmartPlanet

 

0.00285% of the GDP negligible effect if any

 

It looks like that study may have only considered the fall time change where "We lost an hour".

The United States adopted it in 1918.

As someone who has diagnosed sleep problems...I can tell you that having to shift my sleep schedule by an hour in one direction or another will thoroughly disrupt what sleep schedule I manage to maintain for at least a week. I'm sure I represent one of MANY in saying that it's a real difficulty to me for almost two entire weeks each year. Add to that the fact that those time changes have been proven to diminish work productivity on a nationwide level in the days and even weeks following the time changes, and then look at that from the perspective of a business owner who has to pay for that drop in productivity, and you might be in favor of getting rid of DST.

 

Please, please, please be aware that I'm not trying to make any sort of joke with regards to your sleeping problem. But, I have a few questions after reading your post.

 

1.) Do you ever travel outside of the eastern time zone, whether it be work-related or vacation? If so, and it's work-related, I would understand, because you HAVE to. But, if you travel outside of it for vacation purposes? Why? Doesn't that mess up your internal clock just as much? I mean I could see for a day or so wanting to eat lunch at 11am, but not for an entire week, if you went somewhere in the central time zone. But, no way am I eating breakfast at 4am if I'm in California. And if you do "adjust" to the new time zone, don't you have to do the same thing coming back home? (Because if it's that much of a problem, I would hate not being able to travel.)

 

2.) Have you never over-slept on the weekends, woken up earlier than the alarm during the week, or just gone to bed sooner/later than you might normally do? I've done that so much that I can't even count the times. And I think most people have too, they just don't recognize that they're doing it. The reason everyone complains about DST is because everyone's aware that they're making an adjustment. But, changing one way or the other doesn't bother me.

 

And for the record, while it stinks, I'd much rather be driving home in the dark, during the cold wintery months and be able to enjoy an extra hour of daylight after I get off work in the summer.