Time "change"

So we switched back to Daylight Saving Time last weekend. That meant we "lost" an hour of sleep and "gained" an hour of daylight.

No, we didn't. Sorry. We just rearranged things a bit to make it look like we have an extra hour of daylight. The sun isn't actually up for one more hour, nor is it dark for one less hour. It's just an illusion.

Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea of daylight saving time while he was in Paris in 1784, according to www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html. It's been used in the United States since World War I, though not with great consistency, evidently. After World War I, the federal law enacting the time change was repealed, leaving it up to local authorities to decide. Roosevelt re-implemented the law during World War II (from 1942-1945). After the war, areas could decide for themselves again whether to go with DST or not. That wouldn't be at all confusing.

In the 1960s, the Committee for Time Uniformity (no lie, that was its name) surveyed telephone operators to find out about time change enforcement. They found extreme inconsistency and confusion and did everything they could to rectify the situation. In fact, "[h]aving rallied the general public's support, the Time Uniformity Committee's goal was accomplished, but only after discovering and disclosing that on the 35-mile stretch of highway (Route 2) between Moundsville, W.V., and Steubenville, Ohio, every bus driver and his passengers had to endure seven time changes!" Seriously!

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 finally solved the problem by setting a federal standard for what time it was. States that didn't want to participate had to pass their own law saying so. There were a couple, but for the most part, everyone played along.

We all love the time change in the fall when we "gain" an hour of sleep. But people, it's all in our heads. Days are still 24 hours long. With the time change, instead of getting up at 7 a.m., we change our clocks and get up at 6, but we insist it's 7 because that's what the clock says.

No wonder we're all tired.

Here's an idea. When it's time to reset our clocks in the fall and the spring, everyone gets the following week off so we can adjust our internal clocks. We'd have an entire week to sleep in (or not, as the case may be) and get ourselves situated to match the "new" time.