Sleep is a precious commodity and anything that takes it away raises my ire.
That is why I have never been a proponent of Daylight Savings Time (DST).
In the spring I have to move my clocks forward, losing an hour of sleep. The same thing happens again in the fall, when I have to do it all over again, this time moving my clock back an hour. I know in theory, I should be happy because I get that hour of sleep back, but what usually happens is that it just messes up my body’s rhythms so I yet again lose sleep.
And all of this is because, some people way back and are no longer alive, thought for their own selfish reasons, that DST was a good idea.
It was New Zealander George Vernon Hudson, who first proposed a two-hour time shift in 1895. Hudson was a shift worker and amateur entomologist (he collected bugs) and wanted more daylight to aid in his collecting of bugs.
In England in 1905, prominent builder and outdoorsman William Willett also proposed the idea of DST. Willett was an avid golfer who was upset that he had to often cut his golf games short due to a lack of daylight. However, it was not until World War I that daylight savings time actually started to gain some traction. On April 30, 1916, Germany became the first country to enact DST in an effort to conserve coal.
I guess that is why I was so pleased that Thomas Dang, MLA for Edmonton southwest, has officially joined my ‘unofficial’ campaign to scrap DST through his private member’s bill.
Admittedly, I am a little biased. As many of our readers know I grew up in the small East Kootenay, B.C. town of Creston, which, besides being famous for our fruit and Kokanee beer, does not change time.
For better or worse, Creston is permanently locked on Pacific Standard Time and, minus the occasional missed appointment in one of the surrounding towns that does change time, its residents have, by and large remain unscathed.
In addition to my own disdain for DST, there are a number of studies which show a definite link between DST and a number of negative health and safety issues.
A 2008 Swedish study found a higher incidence of heart attacks in the first three workdays after the clocks ‘spring forward.’ A number of insurance companies also report an increase in vehicle and workplace accidents in the days and weeks after the implementation of DST.
So I for one say, down with Daylight Savings Time and I hope MLAs ignore party lines and support Dang’s bill.
