For many Americans, we look at daylight savings time as nothing more then turning back or forward the clocks. Never really knowing why we have it and why it is still being used to this day. Per WebExhibits, daylight savings time was created by Benjamin Franklin in 1784(“History & Info – Daylight Saving Time, Early Adoption, U. S. Law. “). He brought it up since the days were getting shorter with daylight and that the mornings would be earlier. Franklin came up with the idea of adding 20 minutes to each Sunday in April and taking away 20 minutes each Sunday in September.
This was first adopted in Britain and soon spread to many different countries during WWI. The main reasoning for it during WWI was to allow more light during the day, so then the labor hours would increase. There were some states that did not use daylight savings time during this period. After WWI ended Daylight Savings Time was abandoned, but came about with the United States during WWII and for the same reason. In 1966 the Uniform Time Act of 1966 was created. This was created to have a well mandated daylight savings time for each of the time zones to follow.
Per Yahoo News, there are a few states and provinces to this day that do not follow it in the United States: Arizona and Hawaii (Ax, Joseph). This creates conflict of time between the states that use daylights saving time. You might be thinking that daylight savings time does not impact you a lot currently. But, isn’t it pain having to remember to move all your clocks in your house up and down an hour. It is a real pain having to do that and I’m sure no one will bat an eye if daylight savings time were to gotten rid of in the United States.
For Americans, it would be much better if we got rid of daylight avings time and left time alone. There are three important reasons why daylight savings time should be dismissed from the United States. These three reasons are that it is bad for your health, it is expensive, and lastly it drops productivity As Americans, we want to be healthy and avoid things that may cause us to be unhealthy. What daylight savings time does is change our sleeping pattern randomly which causes the body to react in different ways because of the different sleep pattern. Studies say that changing the sleeping pattern by one hour goes against one’s natural circadian rhythms.
The circadian rhythm is a 24-hour physiological process in other words is your “body clock”. Going against it is basically fighting your body of its natural routine. There are other things that affect your health because of DTS. From “American Economic Journal: Applied Economics”, Daylight savings time increases the risk of a fatal car crash accidents by 5% – 6. 5% (Smith, C. Austin). It has also resulted in 30 more deaths annually from car crashes. This comes back to messing with your “body clock”. Your body likes routine and when you throw something new into the routine, it must adjust to it.
Per CNN, the following next two days of the spring daylight savings time there is an increase of heart attack by 10% (Pearson, Michael). This is caused by change in sleep and the body is not used to it. The body may try to overcompensate or overreact to situations which may cause heart attacks. Both of those health issues are very serious and people probably will say that it could never happen to them since they have a healthy heart and are a good driver. It may be harder to avoid the next two health issues. With the change of a sleep schedule, people often have headaches because of this. Per ProCon. rg, one headache that is diagnosed during the fall daylight savings time is cluster headaches. This is when one experiences major pain from a day up to weeks (“Top 3 Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time. “). These headaches also react to another type of health issue and that is the increase of workplace injuries. These workplace injuries are found in physical jobs like miners. Taken from LiveScience, with just 40 minutes less of sleep, there was an increase of 5. 7% workplace injuries in the mines that week of daylight savings time (Poppick, Laura). This is cause by the sudden change of sleep in a person.
Hopefully these health concerns open your eyes to what DST may do. Many people say that these health concerns can be avoided, Saying that the person should adjust before daylight savings time to get their body into routine. According to ProCon. org, one of their major points is that daylight savings time increases safety because of the longer daylight hours (“Top 3 Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time. “). Stating that longer daylight prevents more car accidents, less pedestrians being hit by cars, and overall safety on the roads. They also found for there to be less crime since there is daylight out.
Robberies decreased 7% overall because of more daylight out. When there are less crimes, the population can stay outside longer and enjoy the day. Taken from CNN, they also found a decrease in crime around 27% in the evening hours (Pearson, Michael). These are very good points to make why daylight savings time should stay, but health is more important to the nation. Crime can be prevented by installing more street lamps to light up darker areas in less light places. To decrease dangerous driving, install more speed cameras and have more light on busy roads. Those points can be fixed, but changing the routine of the body is much harder.
On to one of the topics that will be of an interest to most people since it affects every one of us. Having daylight saving time is expensive and to some that makes no sense since you are only changing the hour on a clock. Per William F. Shughart II, changing the clocks cost Americans $1. 7 billion in opportunity cost (Handwerk, Brian). That means for everyone changing their clocks, watches, phones, and anything that has a clock is wasting that time. That is only a few minutes, 10 minutes at maximum to change the clocks, but still lose almost $2 billion dollars in pportunity cost. The loss of money doesn’t stop here, the next way is through people missing work. All it takes is having an alarm that doesn’t change to daylight savings time and one is already an hour behind their schedule. Meaning, if they work an hourly wage job they already lost one hour of their pay check. One of the negatives to daylight savings time is that not every country in the world does DST. Airports are the biggest concern with this, since leaving or coming back to the United States depends whether we are currently changing the clocks or if another country is also.
According to the Air Transport Association, came to that daylight savings time cost airlines $147 million dollars in 2007 because of confusion (Abad-Santos, Alexander). So, if one missing their flight because of confusion of DST that is money being wasted. Now relating back to the previous point, I made about health issues. Information taken from Lost Hour Economic Index, the changing of the clocks cost the United States economy $434 million nationally (“Top 3 Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time. “). The reason for the $434 million nationally is from workplace injuries, health issues, and productivity decreasing during the time.
There are plenty of people that believe that daylight savings time is good for the economy. The reason for this is that there is an increase of sales for certain products during the fall and spring. Per Popular Mechanics. com, the barbecue industry profits were increasing by $150 million for one month because of the extra daylight hours available (Nosowitz, Dan). The thing is that this is only impacting one product and that is the barbecue industry. It isn’t saving people that amount of money from car accidents or health issues. Per ProCon. rg, says that crime goes down when daylight savings time is going on (“Top 3 Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time. “). This being listed before during my first point, but there are different ways to prevent crime. Have speeding cameras, have lights in areas that are usually dark, and have more patrolling in areas of crime. Lastly, the one that highlights all the other points that I have given for why we should get rid of daylights saving time. It is that it decreases our productivity when DST starts. Whether it is we sleep in too much and become lazy or we wake up tired having a tough time staying awake.
According to LiveScience, with most that work the morning of a daylight savings time often experience cyber-loafing. Which is basically procrastinating on the internet during times of work (Poppick, Laura). This relates back to loss of money during the second point because if one isn’t working then they usually are not making money. Per globalnews. ca, this happens due to the lack of sleep which causing the employees to have a lack of motivation. Another part of the lack of productivity is that our “body clock” is not on a regular schedule (Chai, Carmen).
This means one is more likely to still be tired throughout the workday because they are working through the lack of sleep. The lack of productivity can affect traveling from state to state. One may ask how is that so? Taken from Daylight Savings Time, by chance if you live in Texas and you have business in Arizona to take care of. The issue in this scenario is that Arizona does not take part in daylight savings time (“Daylight Savings Time. “). So, either you will be very early or very late. Also, regarding all the other facts listed in the points can lead to a lack of productivity.
Whether it is that you got in a car accident, you are sick from your body rejecting the change of time, you’re lazy because you missed work, or anything else. These all affect your attitude to go through the rest of your day and even your week. These problems could be solved for all of Americans if daylight savings time was not a thing for the United States. The people that are for daylight savings time, they often stated that it makes people more active since they are waking up to the sun. Then going to bed when the sun isn’t in sight. Saying that they are waking up to the natural sun and going to bed without the sun outside.
Taken from nationalgeographic. com, they have also found that people spend less time inside watching TV and more time outside since it’s still nice and sunny outside (Handwerk, Brian). Lastly, they have said that more people play sports when there is not artificial light to light up the arena, stadium, etc. Per ProCon. org, this would allow people to become more physically fit and allow themselves to be healthier (“Top 3 Pros and Cons of Daylight Saving Time. “). To all the following points, I admit that it is not a bad idea for more daylight and time outside to have fun rather than being inside.
I believe this is a strong suit of daylight savings time, waking up to the sun and have the most out of the day. To most of us, this controversial topic means not a lot to people unless they are getting an extra hour of sleep. The more you consider the health concerns that affect humans when they change their “body clock” is quite nerve racking. Just by changing you sleep schedule by an hour you can increase chances of heart attacks, getting into a fatal car accident, being involved in a work-related injury, and painful headaches up to a week.
These are the most extreme scenarios for some people, but these are still possible to happen to you or any of your loved ones. Daylight savings time should not be ignored or forgotten why it is hear and if we need it or not. Americans should look at DST and see if it is worth that extra hour of sleep. Personally, I believe more acknowledgement of the topic would be better for the United States. Not all 50 states need to take away daylight savings time, but states should take into consideration what both sides must offer.
