Thursday, October 30, 2014

Returning to Eastern Standard Time

I always confuse Daylight Saving Time with Eastern Standard Time.  Which one are we returning to in a few days?  Well, the answer is Eastern Standard Time.  Daylight Savings Time happens during the summer months.

There are several  theories attempting to explain the DST system. One is that by turning the clocks ahead in the spring farmers would have more time to get their work done.  That of course is ridiculous.  Farmers long ago didn't care what the clock said.  They worked from sun up to sun down. Period.

Another theory was that DST was adopted during war time to conserve energy and increase productivity thereby saving money.  That one is a little more plausible but equally wrong.

A third explanation I've read and actually believe over the others is that it was completely arbitrary.  It's thought that Ben Franklyn started the custom because he simply liked having longer evenings of daylight.  It had nothing to do with saving time or money or increasing productivity. 

So Saturday night we set the clocks back.  News people keep saying how nice it will be because we'll supposedly gain an hour of sleep but I find that to be untrue.  For me it just means I'm going to be awake earlier until my body adjusts to the change.  Let's face it, can anyone really force themselves to sleep an hour longer?  I suppose some people can but not me. I'm awake the same time every morning no matter what.

If I had my way I'd leave the clocks the way they are now all year and call it Eastern Standard Time.  At any rate, don't forget to change them or you're going to be showing up everywhere an hour early-or is it an hour late? Whatever.  You're going to be out of step!

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