MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
The Hands of Time
The horror.
Once again we have been asked to change our clocks.
And once again we will have to listen to the biannual outrage.
People will complain that daylight savings time messes with their circadian rhythm, causing fatigue, sleepiness, and increased health risks for several days or weeks.
And when we go back one hour in the fall, the clock watchers will be in a tizzy again.
News stories will document on either occasion that springing ahead and falling back is bad for one’s health — both physical and mental.
With all the problems in the world, it is difficult to believe that time change is the one that sends people running to the doctors and psychologists.
When did we become such fragile flowers?
Some 70 countries, or about one-third of the world's nations spring ahead and hour and fall back an hour, most commonly observed in North America and Europe.
Why the angst?
It varies, but here’s some of the issues raised: It disrupts sleep patterns, causes severe fatigue, and triggers negative health effects like increased heart attacks, strokes, car accidents and general malaise.
Now I get worrying about the state of affairs in the Middle East, our fractured relations with the U.S., the sluggish Canadian economy, hallway medicine, raising children, crippling drug use, joblessness, homelessness and the high cost of groceries and housing.
Any one of these could keep you up at night. But having to put the clocks ahead in March and back again in November should be the least of our worries.
British Columbia would not disagree with me.
It has adopted permanent year-round Daylight Saving Time to improve people’s overall health, reduce disruptions for families, simplify scheduling and provide an extra hour of evening light during the winter months, according to a B.C, government release.
On the contrary, Saskatchewan has not observed DST since 1966 and maintains standard time year-round, specifically central standard Time (CST).
I recall a Saskatchewan woman once said she agreed with her province’s stand because DST faded her drapes, not realizing the sun shines so many hours no matter the time zone.
The best anyone can explain Saskatchewan’s decision is that it was a compromise given that it means for part of the year it’s is on the same time as Alberta and the rest of the year, its syncs with Manitoba.
In Ontario, the clock watchers can expect to be devastated— at least in their minds — for the foreseeable future.
As long as Quebec and the New York and other US trading partners stick with springing ahead and falling back then the torturous exercise of changing clocks will continue.
When will the horror end?
As the Bard would say, much ado about nothing.