The science behind why people hate Daylight Saving Time so much
Nearly a week later and my group chats are still lingering on the subject of Daylight Savings. It’s always so much more of a thing than I think it will be, even when it’s followed by a week of wondrous weather and sunlight like it has this year (in the New York area at least). I’m traveling to Europe at the end of the month for a short family visit and yesterday I found out that my trip overlaps with their changing of the clocks. Daylight savings twice in one month on top of a time zone change?? I’m confused already.
This article from ars technica explains a bit of the science behind why so many of us find daylight saving time so exasperating:
In the language of chronobiologists, the biological clock rhythms of humans and other animals are entrained, or synchronized, to the solar clock.
Humans have devised schemes such as time zones and Daylight Saving Time to optimize their interactions with these natural cycles of light and dark. But the match between time policy and the zeitgeber is often imperfect.
It also discusses the suggested approaches to fixing the issue, and how many people are thinking about it in a narrow minded way:
The conflict over DST versus ST makes for grabby headlines and engaging social media posts. But focusing on the clash misses the bigger questions about how we choose to mark time. A close look at the research reveals not only uncertainties about the effects of DST, but also about other factors, such as how time zones are drawn and, possibly most important, how structuring our schedules around light and dark could have a profound impact on health and safety.
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