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Proof Daylight Saving Time Is Dumb, Dangerous, and Costly (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the time-to-revisit dept.

From a report on Bloomberg: The case for daylight saving time has been shaky for a while. The biannual time change was originally implemented to save energy. Yet dozens of studies around the world have found that changing the clocks has either minuscule or non-existent effects on energy use. [...] The latest research suggests the time change can be harmful to our health and cost us money. The suffering of the spring time change begins with the loss of an hour of sleep. That might not seem like a big deal, but researchers have found it can be dangerous to mess with sleep schedules. Car accidents, strokes, and heart attacks spike in the days after the March time change. It turns out that judges, sleep deprived by daylight saving, impose harsher sentences. [...] Some of the last defenders of daylight saving time have been a cluster of business groups who assume the change helps stimulate consumer spending. That's not true either, according to recent analysis of 380 million bank and credit-card transactions by the JPMorgan Chase Institute.

4 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. Re:We've known this for years by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

    When I grew up, my teachers blamed the farmers for DST too. So imagine my surprise when I found out they're actually among the loudest opponents of DST - they generally oppose it because their work is synchronized to daylight hours, and DST means the entire world moves one hour out and expects deliveries, staffing, etc, an hour earlier for half the year.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  2. Re:We've known this for years by jeremyp · · Score: 3, Informative

    No human would fall for that...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Oh.

    --
    All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  3. It is not the hour, it is the change by markdavis · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is really nothing wrong with Daylight Saving Time. For modern people, it is better to have daylight later in the day than earlier. The problem is the change to and from Saving Time to Standard Time; that messes everything up.

    Change to DST (summer time) and just STAY THERE and stop changing time and all our problems go away.

  4. Re:Proof was not given... by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Informative

    Different days of the month, but not different weekdays. Nice try. Wanna play again?

    Sure, I'll play again.

    Switching over to daylight saving time, and losing one hour of sleep, raised the risk of having a heart attack the following Monday by 25 percent, compared to other Mondays during the year, according to a new U.S. study released on Saturday.