It’s time to set the world’s clock to daylight time and leave it there, permanently. This silly switching back and forth should be given a dignified burial. Farmers get up with the sun, no matter what time the clock shows. Do the birds change their clocks twice a year? Many people don’t even have manual clocks anymore: their computers and iPhones already know when to change, hence the declining number of time change announcements from the news media.
I remain unconvinced by the various arguments in favor of the switch. As Wikipedia reports, “Although an early goal of DST was to reduce evening usage of incandescent lighting, formerly a primary use of electricity, modern heating and cooling usage patterns differ greatly, and research about how DST currently affects energy use is limited and often contradictory.”
The time change is like getting on a plane—it’s an enforced jet lag of one hour. For some people, the loss of sleep makes a difference. A 2009 U.S. study, reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology, found that on Mondays after the switch to DST, workers sleep an average of 40 minutes less and are injured at work more often and more severely.
So let’s just do it. All daylight, all the time.