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

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.

11 of 352 comments (clear)

  1. We've known this for years by Virtucon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We've known for a long time, at least in my recollection since the '70s, that daylight savings time didn't do much other than cause problems. Since our Nation really isn't based on agricultural production anymore maybe it's time we just give it up. I'm sure the farmers, chickens and local schools can get it sorted out okay.

    --
    Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
    1. Re: We've known this for years by corychristison · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I commented the below comment in the last /. post about DST:

      As someone even more North than you (Canadian Prairies), it doesn't make any sense... sun is still down when most people go to work, and sun goes back down again before most people are done work.

      Shifting it an hour really has no benefit when you only get 7 hours of daylight in the winter.

      In the Summer it's opposite. Sun comes up between 5-6 am, sets around 10pm.

      With that said, where I live, we don't have DST and I'm damn glad we don't.

      It's largely a regional thing, based on where you are geographically. This is why generalized discussions about DST don't make sense. Everyone lives in different area's both on the horizontal and vertical axis.

      In other words, your experience is not my experience. How about we quit arguing about it and get on with our lives?

  2. Re:Proof?!?! First-world problems.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not going to dispute that this is a really shitty submission, and that Slashdot could do better.

    What I will dispute, however, is that the problems that people experience in civilized nations are somehow less important than the problems people experience in less civilized nations.

    People in civilized nations have to deal with all of the same problems that less civilized nations have to deal with. We still have to eat food and drink water. We still have to provide ourselves with shelter. We still need clothing. We still need to avoid injury and death.

    In fact, it's often much harder for people living in the most developed countries to do such things. Most of the most civilized nations are in areas with very inhospitable conditions, such as long and harsh winters, or short crop growing seasons. It's not like, say, Africa or the Caribbean, where the climate is such that shelter, clothing, and even agriculture almost become non-issues.

    Belittling "first-world problems" is silly, because they not only encompass the problem at hand, but they also encompass all of the problems that less civilized nations need to deal with, too.

    By their very nature, "first-world problems" are inherently more severe than "non-first-world problems".

    If something is deemed to be a "first-world problem", then it's a very significant problem. Just because civilized nations have come up with ways of dealing with the foundational problems doesn't mean that the higher-level problems are less problematic. It's actually quite the opposite.

  3. Prototypical example by onyxruby · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Daylight savings is the perfect example of government's regulatory overreach interference in people's lives for theoretical gain. What is there is an increase in stress, time, money and heart attacks.

    It's a concept that kills people, something studies have shown for years. Meanwhile anyone who wants an extra hour of daylight can make a personal choice and adjust their sleep schedule.

    http://www.livescience.com/567...
    https://permies.com/t/509/Debu...
    http://www.nytimes.com/roomfor...
    https://www.theatlantic.com/na...

  4. Re:Correlation =! caustion by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If one hour change caused this much havoc then driving/flying between time zones should have the same effect yet oddly, it doesn't.

    It doesn't ? Where's your data ?

  5. Proof was not given... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Proof Daylight Saving Time Is Dumb, Dangerous, and Costly

    A correlation was cited, but causation was not proven. There are more pedestrian accidents between noon and 1pm. But that does not mean that lunch hour needs to be eliminated.

    .
    Nice try. Wanna play again?

  6. Re:Excellent by religionofpeas · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There is no need to have gaps or duplicate time points in your data. Hint: timezones and DST are only an illusion.

    You must have missed the part where OP says "most people want to view data in local time"

  7. Re: Proof?!?! First-world problems.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except that "first world problem" is normally used specifically to imply something is insignificant. In this case the thing is, apparently, actually significant, so I agree it's the wrong use of the phrase. But In general it can be a meaningful phrase.

  8. Re:Excellent by religionofpeas · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Someone who wants to accurately analyze time-based data and insists on local time is an idiot

    So, when my travel app says I need to take the 1:30 am train, I'm an idiot for not using GMT or Unix timestamps ?

  9. Yes get rid of it by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Get rid of the time change and make it light an hour longer in the evening. Who really gives a damn if dawn is an hour later every day? Most people work. So you're going to work in the dark, so what? Wouldn't most people prefer having it be light outside for a while after they leave work, even in mid-December?

  10. Re:National DST Day by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hey I have a radical idea! How about we adjust the work etc schedules differently for summer vs winter? Hmm, we'll ok it is not so radical, many businesses already do it... SO f*ing do that AND STOP WITH THE TIMEZONE BULLSHIT.

    Hey, our meeting is set up a bit late, it will be dark, how about setting it earlier. NO LETS ALL CHANGE OUR CLOCKS INSTEAD!!! Madness...