UNITED STATES—This weekend marked daylight savings time and for many Americans it has its pros and cons. I don’t mind the notion of gaining an hour of sleep; however, I hate the notion of losing an hour of sleep. That notion of springing forward can create all kinds of chaos. For starters, for those of us who work and have to be to work very early in the morning, that one hour push is difficult to adjust to.
I was so tired and sleep deprived on Sunday, I still don’t know how I made it through the day. That might be the result of working longer hours on Friday and Saturday that eventually caught up with me. Just making it through Sunday was a struggle. I wanted desperately to fall into my bed and sleep at least 8 hours, but that was in no way about to transpire. Was it fun to see the sun set later in the day? Absolutely, but at the same time, I don’t like the fact that the sun rising has been altered yet again.
I mean the sun was up by six in the morning, now it’s an hour later. Look I’m a proponent of having the sunlight out during the early morning hours to assist those who are walking to school and those who either walk or catch the bus. It’s no secret that criminals like to strike during the darkness of the night; if we take that darkness away from them it makes it harder to target people.
Heck, if I had my choice we’d have sunlight 24 hours a day. I know that transpires in some parts of Alaska, but that is unlikely in the entire United States. There are people who would have a ton of trouble adjusting to seeing the bright lights day in and day out. There are plenty members of Congress who want to do away with the notion of Daylight Savings Time, and before this year I would say no way, but now I’ve considered the options.
Who are actually benefitting from the loss of sleep or the gain of sleep? The only great thing about gaining an hour of sleep is the fact that you get an extra hour of sleep. However, the drawback of that is that the sun sets much earlier during the day. I mean who the hell wants to be out and about at 5 p.m. and see its pitch black outside.
I hate the notion that it’s dark during the fall season; a time when many more people are out shopping for the holidays and celebrating with family. The great thing about losing that hour of sleep is more sunlight, but at the cost of people being groggy or less prepared to come to work or to be behind the wheel of a car. It feels like if we allow time to work the way it should work everything will be ok. It almost feels like with Daylight Savings Time we are attempting to play God.
We’re trying to manipulate time and as we all know, we can’t just go back into the past and adjust things because we want to. We have to allow time to run its course and operate how it’s supposed to be: without any interruption.
Written By Kelsey Thomas
