Daylight Savings Time was officially instituted in the 1970s to defray energy costs. Although the benefits may not outweigh the costs to our sleep and our overall health, let alone the actual energy savings, it seems unlikely that the practice will ever change.
It was not hard to find Daylight Savings Time detractors this morning, in person or on the Web. For my part, I was surprised to find my morning bike ride plunged into darkness, and even more surprised that I was getting up almost two hours before dawn (which sounded a lot worse than it was).
I was not alone. A new blog post on Freakonomics argues that the lack of Monday morning sleep has a measurable effect on productivity, as tired workers are more likely to slack off than rested ones.
Original article by Sam Ross-Brown, written for Utne Reader, posted March 12, 2012.
Leave a Reply