I really HATE Daylight Savings time. I prefer the summer hours, but just pick one, and stick with it. This twice a year switch is stupid, and a century from now, they’ll look back at it, and wonder why we did such a stupid thing, for so long.
I have a summer seasonal affective disorder. I know it’s a bit controversial diagnosis, but I absolutely have a terrible time during summer. It’s so bad I start to be increasingly anxious about summer by the end of February because I know it’s slowly approaching.
I find daylight to be pleasant like everybody, but after a very short time I start to feel drained as if it was too much. I like cloudy days or when it rains. During summer, I basically don’t sleep. Even when the heat is not an issue I just can’t sleep.
Lately I’ve been smiling and laughing more and more; I feel much more at peace. It’s always strange to finally feel energized and genuinely happy when most people around me feel the complete opposite.
I’m similar. Definitely way more sluggish and depressed in summer, and my sleep is very poor even if I control the temperature. I enjoy rain and darkness. I prefer night shift. Autumn is my favorite because summer is finally over and it’s the longest time before summer comes again, plus it has the best holidays. I sleep best in winter and I’m more productive, energized, and happy.
But unlike SAD, it’s a lot harder to fix than just getting a sun lamp. I already do sleep in as dark a room as I can get during the day, but it’s never enough. Though the few times I’ve had access to a truly pitch black room to sleep in, it’s been really helpful.
It’s a weird way to be and most people really don’t understand.
I feel for you. Although I never got an actual diagnosis, I am fairly sure I have traditional SAD. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, because I handle cooler temps better than warm ones, but I guess it’s a sunlight exposure thing.
I knew someone who claimed that light therapy helped. I don’t know much about it, in your case it might be worth a short. Some people talked about melatonin, but I don’t think it helps that much if at all (but that’s just based my own experience).
In any cases, I hope this winter won’t be too hard on you this year.
Thank you. I bought a light therapy lamp years ago. I will have to find it.
Where I live it gets dark around 19:00 now. End of December it will be around 18:30. It still leaves me time for a bike ride or a quick hike after work.
Last year in December I was in Poland and at 17:00 it was completely dark outside. The bizarre thing was that it wasn’t just getting dark, there was no one outside. Walking outside at 18:00 felt like walking in the middle of the night. I would look out the window, decide it’s time to go to bed then look at the clock and see it’s 19:00. Pretty depressing.
Gets dark around 16:30 in most of the usa around dec/jan. It sucks. Wake up in the dark, go to work in the dark, and get home in the dark.
Hahaha, you guys think that’s early,good one
For a lot of people if it’s dark when you leave work it doesn’t really matter if it got dark at 16:59 or 14:00.
Yea but it’s darka at 1400 here on my days off too. Also,we have many many days with no sunshine. Just likes weeks,no vitamin D.
Come to southern Spain. It’s a great place to spend winter.
You paying?
I will 100% buy a beer when you get here.
“I have no such weakness”
- Me living in the equator
I find it much more dispiriting to come home in the dark, than to get up in the dark. So yeah I like “daylight savings time” more in practice. People arguing noon is sun at highest point aren’t arguing that 6 is sunrise and 6 is sunset, we don’t use sundials anymore.
I’d be good with a world time. Just decide when a day starts worldwide and let local schedules be whatever works. So maybe the sun rises at 0100 in my longitude and so work starts at 4 or whatever. There’s no magic to the 12 being noon.
I used to think this too, but using a global time means the date also ticks over to the next day at odd moments during the day. So in the end it feels like timezones with extra confusion.
For all the people who don’t understand how time works.
Noon is supposed to be at 12:00. Let’s say someone lives in a place where that is literally true. If they lived on the equator then sunrise would be at 6 am and set at 6 pm. If it is the equinox anywhere on the planet would be sire at 6 am and set at 6 pm.
If they are far enough north or south that the shortest day is 10 hours or less, then the sun will rise at 7 am and set at 5 pm. This includes most of the US and Europe. The sun setting at 5 pm during the winter is normal.
The primary issue, at least in the US is that the typical workday of 9 to 5 or 8 to 5 has 5 hours in the afternoon and only 3 or 4 hours in the morning. Being afternoon heavy means getting dark at 5 seems early, especially after the stupid DST shift making it seem like evenings should have even more sunlight. We basically changed society based on banking hours and are angry that time works the way it does and instead of just shifting working hours to what we want we pretend that the sun is the highest in the sky at 1:00 pm for part of the year for no logical reason.
Shortest day is like 6 hours here.
Even high schoolers don’t see daylight, let alone people with jobs.
It’s horrible
Work and school schedules could be adjusted to adapt so we’re not “going to work in the dark”. They could be, and probably everyone not getting rich off virtual slave labor would fine with that.
With the switch to standard time, I now go to work in the dark, and go home in the dark. How are you going to fix that?
Shorter work days.
Next month it will be 4:00. Ugh.
I hate how early it gets dark, but I did get the third shift achievement of clocking out at 1:30 am and getting home at 1:20 am this morning, so that’s kinda neat.
I don’t know why we ever “fall back”. I dream of a life in which we “spring forward” and stay there forever.
Because of like farmers 100 years ago apparently
Actually, not in the slightest:
It is a common myth in the United States that DST was first implemented for the benefit of farmers. In reality, farmers have been one of the strongest lobbying groups against DST since it was first implemented. The factors that influence farming schedules, such as morning dew and dairy cattle’s readiness to be milked, are ultimately dictated by the sun, so the clock change introduces unnecessary challenges.
