Friday, March 6, 2015

Daylight Savings Time; Should It Stay or Should It Go?




It sounds like a song, but it is not….it’s a question (?) one we ask ourselves every fall and every spring.  On March 8th we turn our clocks forward as we "spring" into the spring season. Everyone loves to fall back, getting that extra sleep time, but do we really get that or are our bodies telling us a different story.  Springing forward takes that extra hour away, Kind-of crazy. “SHOULD IT STAY OR SHOULD IT GO?”

Currently, Washington shifts to daylight saving time from the second Sunday in March through the first Sunday in November to extend daylight in the evenings. The rest of the year Washington is on standard time in the Pacific zone. This is also a point where it reminds you to change the batteries in your fire alarms

Some lawmakers in Washington State want to end the annual shift to daylight saving time and put Washington on standard time year around. What if a bill passed and on March 8th, the entire United States moved their clocks forward and didn't change them back in the fall? My personal opinion of this would to do just that…standard time year round.  It would save time and money.  People would not have to travel to work in the dark and home in the dark, electricity bills would be smaller, using lights less and less. There have been studies that show our consumption drops when DST goes into effect. A plus to the change of time is that this would be a reminder for you to check or change the batteries in your home fire alarms.

I think these lawmakers are onto something. And it'll be interesting to watch the public reaction in the years to come.

2 comments:

Elizabeth R Rose said...

It's time for daylight savings time to go. I lived in Arizona and liked not dealing with the hassle of changing the clocks. Besides, my dog does not observe daylight savings time, anyway!

Eric B said...

Your post seems to convey that standard time starts in March. Daylight Savings begins in March (not ends). We are now on Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) and transition back to Pacific Standard Time (PST) in November.