Let’s Give an Entire Nation Jet Lag, Why Don’t We?

March 13, 2017


How I feel the day after DST.
Image courtesy of Nico Traut/Shutterstock

I hate Daylight Savings Time. Hate it.

My mental functioning is very tightly linked to sunlight. I want naps on rainy days, and the darkness of winter is a terrible trial for me. That’s why I celebrate Winter Solstice as much as I celebrate Christmas, and why living in Yellowknife for three years made puberty even more painful than it is for most kids – between October and January, I’d go to school in the dark and come home in the dark. That’s a long, long time for a sleepy, cranky, teenager not to see the sun.

Hence my hate for DST. Just as the sun starts to rise at the time I have to get up, convincing my poor brain that yes, it IS acceptable to be awake now, we roll the clocks forward, and it’s pitch black at 7AM for another month. It is a cruel, cruel joke on a defenceless me.

Especially cruel this morning. I stumbled out of bed in the renewed darkness and attempted to put on my work out clothes while my body screamed at me to go back to bed. And then I did go back to bed, with an ice pack. Because, with my brain addled and my eyes half open, I managed to raise my leg and crack my knee cap directly on the pointy bit of the door frame. Then I hobbled around on one leg swearing, as the point of impact blackened before my eyes. Several hours later, it’s not just bruised but contused – a swollen, lumpy mass with a bright red line down the centre.

Did I mention that this is my bad knee?

I’m not the only one that suffers from “springing forward.” Studies show there will be a spike in car accidents and heart attacks today, as a result of our collective jet lag. Not to mention a dramatic spike in coffee consumption, linked to a drop in productivity, because we’re all too angry and exhausted to do any actual work.

And it doesn’t even save any energy.

Let’s abolish DST. Science is on our side.

I’m taking my ice pack back to bed now.

What about you? How do you feel about daylight savings time?

 

 



4 Comments on ‘Let’s Give an Entire Nation Jet Lag, Why Don’t We?’

  1. Hate it SO much! So much.

    Reply | 
  2. If DST means sunset at 10:05 p.m. and light till 11:00 in June (enough after work to garden by), then bring it on. We don’t need light beginning at 3 a.m., which would be the case under standard time. As someone who takes cues from the daylight outside and thus never gets jet lag, I love DST. It’s one of the few things that makes it worth living here in Edmonton, where we get 5-6 months of winter. A one-hour shift is negligible on the body and maybe only noticeable for a day or two when one realizes mornings are once again darker (for a short time), compared to the overall improvement in quality of life.

    The loss of light in the morning by bringing on DST too early (as opposed to early April in the past) sets us back for about a month. However, daylight until 8:00 p.m. at the other end of the day more than makes up for this inconvenience. The days of brain fog are over for at least the next half year.

    Reply | 
    1. Completely disagree. I’d much rather have daylight in the morning!

      Reply | 
      1. Soon! 🙂

        Reply | 

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