The American Spectator : Death to Daylight Saving Time

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Death to Daylight Saving Time

By David Catron on 3.11.13 @ 6:07AM

Ditching DST would save billions in medical care and energy costs.

This morning you were required to get out of bed an hour earlier than you rose last Monday. If you are like most people, you did so in the same spirit of resignation with which you endure winter rain, believing that there are benefits to be gained from Daylight Saving Time that outweigh its discomfort and inconvenience. This belief, however, has no basis in reality. Unlike cold rain, which at least provides sustenance for the land and its inhabitants, DST offers no benefit whatsoever. Indeed, evidence is mounting that it actually constitutes a threat to your health and adds substantially to the cost of American medical care.

This, you may think, is an exaggeration perpetrated by a late riser rendered cranky by the necessity of getting up an hour before his body clock is ready to deal with the travails of Monday morning. But, while I confess to considerable irritation at this prospect, it is nonetheless true that the change to DST is bad for your health. As Bora Zivkovic writes in Scientific American, “Chronobiologists who study circadian rhythms know that for several days after the spring-forward clock resetting … traffic accidents increase, workplace injuries go up and, perhaps most telling, incidences of heart attacks rise sharply.”

Heart attacks? Yep. Zivkovic explains: “As the faint light of dawn starts preparing our bodies for waking up… our various organs, including the heart, also start preparing for increased function. If the alarm clock suddenly rings an hour earlier than usual, a weak heart can suffer an infarct.” A what? This is medical jargon for a piece of tissue that dies because its blood supply has been cut off. If this happens to your heart, you’re in what our 41st President would describe as “deep doo-doo.” And your risk of suffering this calamity is far higher in the early morning, right about the time that alarm goes off, than at any other time of day.

So, if the frequency of heart attacks, traffic accidents and workplace injuries—which are usually very expensive to treat—goes up dramatically when we change the clocks, why do we do it? At a time when the “low-information voter” has been much discussed by pundits, you will not be surprised to learn that most people have no idea. For years, I have done my own unscientific survey of friends, co-workers, et al., and the percentage of people who actually know why they change their clocks is shockingly low. A small percentage will say it saves energy, but none of are able to explain how resetting their clocks could accomplish this miracle.

Nonetheless, saving energy is the ostensible object of the exercise, despite the absence of any real evidence that it actually works. The notion that adjusting clocks seasonally to avoid “wasting” daylight has a long pedigree, but it was never attempted on a large scale until the two world wars of the 20th century, during which various powers adopted DST to conserve oil and coal. It reared its ugly head again in the U.S. during the energy crisis of the 1970s in an attempt to reduce energy demand and was subsequently adopted throughout the contiguous 48 states and Alaska. Notable exceptions were Arizona and most of Indiana.

The latter finally joined the DST herd in 2006 and research into the effects of that conversion has produced some not-so-surprising results. The Wall Street Journal reports that two economists from the University of California-Santa Barbara used “more than seven million monthly meter readings … covering nearly all the households in southern Indiana for three years … to compare energy consumption before and after counties began observing daylight-saving time.” For DST skeptics, the study’s findings will provide a considerable amount of schadenfreude. As it happens, DST actually increases energy consumption.

As the Journal puts it, “Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills.” It turns out that the change drove an increase in air-conditioning costs as well as an increase in heating costs. There was a drop in lighting costs, but that is the least expensive use of electricity. In other words, by imposing DST, the state of Indiana quite literally forced its residents to fork out millions of dollars for the privilege of joining their fellow Americans in having their circadian rhythms thrown out of whack.

Which brings us back to the health implications of DST. It causes dramatic spikes in expensive health problems like heart attacks, traffic accidents, and workplace injuries. In addition, it forces us to consume more energy, which is not getting any cheaper under the Obama energy policies. So it would seem that a good way to save an enormous amount in health care costs as well as energy costs would be to deep-six DST. Will that happen? Probably not. It makes too much sense. If that seems depressing, don’t worry. Depression is another well-documented effect of the annual change to Daylight Saving Time. It’ll wear off soon, if you live.

About the Author

David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (51) | Leave a comment Leave a comment

Robbins Mitchell| 3.11.13 @ 6:19AM

Well,where DST is concerned,one has to consider the implications for American agriculture...when I was growing up in Paris,TN,a local farmer wrote a letter to the editor of my hometown newspaper complaining that he hated DST because that extra hour of sunlight every day was burning up his crops

PolishKnight| 3.11.13 @ 10:23AM

Is this a joke? DST doesn't create any more sunlight. It has PEOPLE wake up earlier in order to get more sunlight out of the day.

wrlord| 3.11.13 @ 11:25AM

Really?

JimH| 3.11.13 @ 1:00PM

Remarkable, how the use of DST and rise global warming coincide. All that extra sunshine is the cause.

Appleby| 3.11.13 @ 6:51AM

I couldn't get to sleep last night because I was going to bed too early according to my body; so I got back up and took a sleeping pill and waited to be tired and went back to bed around midnight. Now I am awake at 6:50 and exhausted. And by the way, it's dark.

PolishKnight| 3.11.13 @ 10:27AM

Appleby, as someone who has regularly flown over 7 time zones at a time, here are my tips for dealing with jet lag which is similar to DST:

Your clock is about what time you wake up, not when you go to bed. So if you know your clock is getting adjusted, wake up in your new time zone at least a day before. So wake up an hour early a day BEFORE DST. You'll feel more tired that night and conk out without a pill.

Regarding heart attack victims. Good thing to know if they need to catch an early morning flight. Perhaps they should set a timer to a lamp to kick off their system the same amount of time they need to wake up early before dawn. Hmmm, I think I also read that this helps with jetlag. I'll try this on my next flight.

donserge| 3.11.13 @ 7:53AM

If setting clocks ahead one hour is good, why not set them two hours ahead and get twice the benefit?

Mike G| 3.11.13 @ 8:17AM

Very few people know that the real reason we have DST is because the pols want to show us who's in charge, that THEY are the ones with the power, that THEY can make us do anything they choose. When will WE throw them out of office and take back our power?

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 10:05AM

Mike G,

Bingo!

Mr. Wright| 3.13.13 @ 4:55PM

Amen.I think it will get a whole lot worse before anyone reacts,we are not the same people we were when a little tax on something sent the entire population into the streets .I think we will just bitch on the internets and drink more microbrewed beer whilst we seethe and bitch to our friends,who do not seem to give a shit.

Kingfish | 3.11.13 @ 8:32AM

Sorry, but I like the extra hour in the evening. I'd rather just keep DST year round. No more getting dark at 5:00 PM.

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 10:07AM

Kingfish,

I could live with that! But think of the poor little children who would have to go to school in the dark in those bleak northern winters. Have you no compassion, sir?

Kingfish | 3.11.13 @ 6:53PM

I live in the South. Let 'em suffer.

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 7:46PM

Kingfish,

I spent Thanksgiving in Haugesund, Norway some years ago. The sun peeked above the horizon about 9:30 AM and dropped, exhausted, at about 3 PM. Those kids walked to school and home in pitch black. They had two four-inch plastic reflectors on a string which they threaded through each sleeve of their coats so they dangled from their arms as they walked. No school buses - walking along a main road - a tough bunch, those Norwegians ;)

P.S.: Do da name Ruby Begonia strike a familiar note?

Pecos Pete| 3.11.13 @ 8:48AM

King O can't get the sun to cooperate. The next couple of regulations from HHS or OSHA will deal with circadian rhythms.

From HHS: How to prevent circadian rhythms from harming your health. If it does, you don't get health care.

From OSHA: Employers shall prevent circadian rhythms from harming their employees. If harm shall occur, the fine shall be $10.99 per rhythm per employee as defined by IRS Regulation Section 2.4.22.(a).(1).(222).(g). 765.

Moe Blotz| 3.11.13 @ 11:19AM

Oy Pete, does the DST have an adverse effect on your doggies and heifers out yonder on the back 40+ acreage?

Pecos Pete| 3.11.13 @ 11:59AM

We milk/feed/manage animals according to the sun, not DST.

Murl| 3.11.13 @ 2:32PM

That's common sense. Can you come teach some to my d0g? Her schedule is dictated by when my alarm clock goes off. As soon as it rings, she's at my side wagging her tail, ready to fertilize the grass.

Al Adab| 3.11.13 @ 2:47PM

Since AZ, HI and IN (part of) don't play this game it is clearly a states rights issue. Get your legislature to end it if you wish.

Al Adab| 3.11.13 @ 9:22AM

It was still dark and the lights were on as the day began. How does that save energy? When will the sun set tonight and what about in July? What time is it really?

Alan| 3.11.13 @ 9:30AM

Junk this idiocy and be done with it. The vast majority want it terminated.

allanius | 3.11.13 @ 9:54AM

Too bad he couldn't get Mayor Bloomberg to co-author.

potkas7| 3.11.13 @ 10:14AM

When I was a kid, the day we shifted to DST was my favorite day of the year. It was in late April then, having passed the Spring Equinox the days were getting longer; the weather turning warmer; the Red Sox were playing baseball at Fenway Park; the end of school was in sight; summer vacation would soon be here; you had a reason to live. Back then the rule was that you had to come in from play when the streetlights came on, so the extra hour of daylight meant you could play ball into the evening.

Similarly, in the late autumn, after the trees had lost their leaves, the November gales were a'blowing, and the skies gone grey, the hour change backwards, and the extra time in a warm bed just seemed right.

But changing the clock in early March is a pointless exercise. Kids now stand in the dark waiting for the school bus; not a problem in Florida, but a little dangerous back home in New England where snowbanks and salt-encrusted windshields obstruct the driver's view of the road.

Now DST is just annoying, and a reminder of the arrogance of politicians who think they can command the sun and the tides to bend to their will. The lesson of King Canute is lost on this present generation.

RandyH| 3.11.13 @ 10:41AM

an old Indian saying "Only the government would believe you could cut the foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket. Ditch DST.

Bandido| 3.11.13 @ 11:10AM

I don't care whether we use DST or ST. But it should be the same year round, unchanging. And now it is 8 months of DST vs 4 of ST. It used to be 6 of each, last Saturday in April and October. Why the change in number of months? The whole concept gives me a migraine.

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 12:08PM

Bandido,

Back in the 80's, Kingsford Charcoal spent a lot of money lobbying for an earlier DST. To them it meant more sales of charcoal as the longer evenings encouraged grilling.

Carlos McDuck| 3.11.13 @ 4:36PM

The Kingsford story is an urban legend. The lobbyists were actually from Hershey's, who thought the chirrun could hold us up for more candy if daylight ran later on Halloween.

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 6:17PM

Carlos McDuck,

I don't think so. I remember it at the time being reported - I was listening to NPR afternoon news picking up my wife from work. It struck a nerve and I commented to my wife that it was a damned thing that Kingsford was waking me up an hour earlier (I am a most dedicated griller).

Refer to: http://commdocs.house.gov/comm.....3325_0.HTM

In it a Mr. Benfield testified. His bio reports that from 1984–1986 he administered and lobbied on behalf of the Daylight Saving Time Coalition. Primary funding for the coalition was provided by The Clorox Company (parent of Kingsford Charcoal) and 7-Eleven Corporation (formerly The Southland Corporation).

BShep| 3.11.13 @ 11:22AM

I am convinced that one day in the far distant past (1970s), a group of democrats were sitting around in a smoke filled room arguing about who amongst them could get the American People to do the most dumb-*ssed thing ever. The guy with the DST idea won!!

Conan| 3.11.13 @ 12:02PM

It's beyond silly to claim that DST costs billions. It's even sillier to say we are killed in great number by getting up an hour earlier. This is off the chart kind of argument really is almost beyond stupid. If Humans were so fragile that an hour cost us so many lives we would have seen it in the deaths of people who have rotating shifts, fly to different Time Zones, etc.

Please don't make up arguments because you disagree with something as simple as DST. I seriously appreciate having an extra hour of daylight in the evening to enjoy summer and I can make up billions in savings and lives saved by extra daylight in the evening just like the author.

Murl| 3.11.13 @ 2:37PM

You do realize that the author's argument was as moronic and stupid and the whole idea of Daylight Savings Time is. And your skewed math skills shine as brightly as that extra hour of sun you claim you are getting. Check your almanac and tell me how many hours of sunlight did you have last Friday, versus today. Just because you are too fat and lazy to get your @$$ out of bed an hour earlier to enjoy the existing amount of daylight is no reason to make the rest of us suffer by comparison.

Guimo| 3.11.13 @ 12:07PM

What the hell is wrong with you, David Catron? DST is for people who like to be outdoors doing something after work. Not weenies like you who stay inside all day.

Carlos McDuck| 3.11.13 @ 4:34PM

Guimo is correct. DST exists so that I can ride my bike after work from April through September. No need for it before or after those months, though.

Mike W| 3.11.13 @ 6:01PM

Actually DST is for those weenies that like to sleep late and be lazy in the morning. Everyone knows that real achievers are the early risers. DST works against those people by keeping it darker early. Roll of your lazy arse earlier and quit jacking with time changes.

Butch| 3.11.13 @ 8:00PM

Gottta disagree with you, Mike. I have had two parallel careers for most of my life, and have done quite well with it. My secret is that I am a night owl, and quite capable of working into the wee hours. Everybody's different, which is why there is such sharp disagreement on this matter.

Michele San Pietro| 3.11.13 @ 1:42PM

Personally, I have nothing against daylight savings time, and I don't see why this should become a matter of life and death. We have had daylight savings time in Europe for ages, and we decided to lengthen it about twenty years ago (now it lasts seven months a year all over Europe), there was never a strong opposition to it. Daylight savings time is certainly neither liberal nor conservative, it's a just a measure and an adequate one in my opinion.

Drunken Sailor| 3.11.13 @ 1:59PM

But if we get rid of DST how will I know when to change the batteries in my smoke alarms?

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 6:22PM

Drunken Sailor,

Don't worry. Given just a bit more time, Bloomberg will get around to that, too!

Mikein Belize| 3.11.13 @ 6:10PM

As a kid in the UK during WW2 I remember DOUBLE daylight saving, and daylight until 11pm in the summer months. I guess the powers to be at the time saw some advantage to this.

John Navratil| 3.11.13 @ 6:24PM

Mikein Belize,

I remember late evenings in London, as well. But when you have over 16 hours of sunlight per day, it doesn't take DST.

JD| 3.11.13 @ 7:49PM

I'm not sure how they did it, but thanks to DST, every day when I wake up, it's 1984.

ithos| 3.11.13 @ 7:54PM

I love DST and I am getting sick and tired of all the whining. Like every major decision there are benefits and drawbacks. If you have a heart attack because of a change in sleep schedule then you are not long for this world anyway. Longer days mean more physical activity both for individuals and groups. Plus it is depressing to arrive home in the dark. Shifting an hour of sunlight to the work schedule is wasteful and stupid.

Butch| 3.11.13 @ 8:04PM

Get used to it. See my comment above. What's depressing to me is leaving for work at dawn. We are all different: let's compromise: go back to five months of DST, seven of standard time.

hrgfue | 3.11.13 @ 10:14PM

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homme nike air max BW | 3.12.13 @ 5:34AM

has no basis in reality. Unlike cold rain, which at least provides sustenance for the http://www.flickr.com/photos/9.....hotostream land and its inhabitants, DST offers no benefit whatsoever. Indeed, evidence is mounting that it actually constitutes a threat to your health and adds substantially to the cost of American medical care.

PatriotGal2257| 3.12.13 @ 12:58PM

The comedian Sam Levenson used to refer to Daylight Saving Time as "cutting off a blanket on one end and sewing it back on the other to make it longer."

hoosiertoo| 3.12.13 @ 1:26PM

Death to Daylight Saving Time:

From your "lips" to the Indiana legislature's &*%$#@* ears.

A$$holes.

Petronius| 3.12.13 @ 7:12PM

Enough of this. Don't you lot know that after the SchickerheitsDIET is deployed by the new national Security Force that Moochelle will push for Federal Regulation of Bedtime? Are you out there P.J?

fdcampbell| 3.14.13 @ 1:54PM

It is my understanding that the recreational products industry did intensive lobbying in support of DST.
The logic was that, if Americans had an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, they would incentivised to buy additional recreational equipment.

atheistrepublican| 3.14.13 @ 2:36PM

It's not the absolute time that's the problem, it's the change. Leave it DST all year and let us enjoy the extra light in the evening all year round.

Michael Morrow| 3.15.13 @ 1:27PM

Leave it in DST, I know this was tried by Tricky Dick back in the 70's. I like the longer daylight in the evenings.

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