Twice a year – when we start daylight saving time and when we end it – we have a conversation in this country about leaving our clocks alone. This time of year, people like to complain about how losing an hour of sleep in the spring messes them up. In the fall, people complain about how dark it is so early at night.
I actually like daylight saving time. That extra hour of daylight at the end of the day in the summertime means we can do more leisurely things than we can do in the winter, when the days are naturally shorter. And colder
I admit that I used to have a problem remembering which way I was supposed to move the clocks. My mother taught me the saying that we should "spring forward and fall back." But, to be honest, we could also "fall forward and spring back." And if I go in the wrong direction, I’m now two hours early or two hours late.
I'm not sure why it's called daylight saving time in the first place since I have saved neither daylight nor time. I certainly haven't saved time. In fact, just this weekend, the Time Police took an hour away from me, and in the middle of the night, no less, when I need it the most.
And I haven't saved any daylight. Yes, it stays daylight an hour longer at the end of the day. But we really haven't added any daylight to the day. It just makes the morning darker for an hour longer. Maybe we should call it "daylight shifting time.”
A few sleep-deprived days notwithstanding, I don’t think people would really be happy if we left the clock alone. I think if we left the clocks alone, people would still complain, this time how about it gets dark too early in the evening. Or it stays too dark in the morning.
For instance, if we didn’t start daylight saving time in the spring, summer nights would get dark around 8 o’clock instead of 9. I like that extra hour of daylight.
On the other hand, if we switched permanently to daylight saving time, it would stay dark until well after 8:30 in the morning each winter. I don’t like more darkness, but I’d rather that extra hour of dark be in the evening.
Realistically, it’s only one hour of sleep we’ve lost, and we could have made that up by going to bed early the night before. And besides, it’s leap year, we just got a whole extra 24 hours last week.
But I get it. I really do. I lead a busy life. I’m not wild about losing an hour of my time. It’s not like I can tell people who expect something from me that they’ll just have to wait until November, when I get that hour back.
On the other hand, if we’re going to lose an hour, let’s do it right. We know we don’t save time or daylight with daylight saving time. In these challenging times in our government, what about if we could save money?
For instance, instead of turning the clocks back while we’re all sleeping, do in on, say, a Monday afternoon at 2 p.m. That would give Congress one less hour to meet that day.
That should save us about $50 billion right there.
