On the other hand, we get more daylight

March 11, 2012 7:09 AM

The Monday and Tuesday after moving the clocks ahead one hour in March is associated with a 10 percent increase in the risk of having a heart attack. Heart Attacks Rise Following Daylight Saving Time.
posted by twoleftfeet (41 comments total)

Apparently this is also the day with the most car accidents aside from major holidays like new years, according to the public service announcement I heard from the local police chief the other day.
posted by mannequito at 7:18 AM on March 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

"Exactly why this happens is not known but there are several theories," Young says. "Sleep deprivation, the body's circadian clock and immune responses all can come into play when considering reasons that changing the time by an hour can be detrimental to someone's health."


I hope they also considered 'oh shit oh shit oh shit I'm late for work' as an explanation.
posted by Anything at 7:20 AM on March 11, 2012 [11 favorites]

Interesting... it does allow me to outsmart my cat once a year, which I like.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:26 AM on March 11, 2012 [14 favorites]

The clock gods demand sacrifice for the puny mortals "springing forward'
posted by ish__ at 7:32 AM on March 11, 2012 [6 favorites]

I'm coming to join you, Elizabeth!
posted by Trurl at 7:56 AM on March 11, 2012 [6 favorites]

So can we assume an equal number of lives are saved in the autumn when clocks are set back? "Oh shit I'm late for work..." and then Lamont says "no pop, you've got another hour".
posted by three blind mice at 8:07 AM on March 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

This is the one thing that Arizona gets right. Our state may be certifiable, but at least we stay in one time zone consistently. None of this mucking about with time for us.

Of course, we do have quite a surplus of daylight, so saving it doesn't make much sense.
posted by MrVisible at 8:18 AM on March 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

Related.
posted by HuronBob at 8:21 AM on March 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

A doctor friend of mine claims there is a research finding that the biggest risk factor for heart attacks is job stress.
posted by neuron at 8:41 AM on March 11, 2012

Beneath the veneer of "energy savings" it's said that DST boosts summer retail spending by providing more daylight after the workday. I wonder if there's anything to this. Is money is actually flowing from business groups to lobbyists to keep the status quo? If any industry sector is able to profit from DST, I'd wager we're going to remain on it.
originally posted by crapmatic at 1:47 PM on December 2, 2011

That's from the "86 DST?" thread from a while ago. Thought it was good. For those of you who wondered, "Why the heck would George W. Bush give a fuck about having more DST?"

When I heard about the expansion of DST, I thought: These clowns in congress (how about those clowns in congress) can't find their ass with both hands, but by god they can fuck with the mainspring of the universe.
posted by Trochanter at 8:51 AM on March 11, 2012

My computer and my phone just jumped ahead an hour. My car clock and my house clock and my waking hour remain on Central Standard Time. I just finished my morning exercise. Usually I say the time out loud at the beginning and the end. This time of year I switch over from saying "9:38!" to "9:38! (or 10:38 if you will)".
posted by bukvich at 9:02 AM on March 11, 2012

Did the anomaly in heart attacks shift when they changed the days that daylight savings occurs on? For the causation angle to be proved, the shift would have to be immediate, I would think.
posted by gjc at 9:05 AM on March 11, 2012

I am so sick of the daylight savings time changes. So sick. Can we all collectively agree to stop this charade?
posted by Malice at 9:20 AM on March 11, 2012

Or we should do it every month or so, so I don't have time to forget how my watch works, how the clock in my car works, how my dvd player works...
posted by Trochanter at 9:26 AM on March 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I for one sincerely, really, double-extra like DST. It's great! It makes summer even MORE summer and by comparison winter even MORE winter! The daylight cycle of the seasons is about the only natural cycle that we don't ignore or try to suppress, we actually amplify the fucker.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 9:32 AM on March 11, 2012 [14 favorites]

I think the expansion of DST has taken away the biggest rush of the whole thing. Under the old system, when you sprang forward, that very evening it would be light out until nine o'clock. Wham. Summer. Now it's meh.
posted by Trochanter at 9:38 AM on March 11, 2012

it does allow me to outsmart my cat once a year, which I like.

One of mine was running around acting like "OMG it's the apocalypse!" this morning, alternately insisting on cuddles and then darting away like "No Hugs! I hate you!"

My theory was that she some how thought that my girlfriend and I were leaving on a trip and had outsmarted her by not packing any luggage.

On an unrelated note, it's a good time to change the batteries in your Smoke/CO detectors, and check your home fire extinguishers for proper pressure. Maybe even have a family fire drill if you're feeling frisky.

(That's another downside to DST expansion. The safety industry's been pushing those reminders for years, because some things just should be done every six months like clockwork. Now, come springtime, you're doing it too soon, and in the fall, you're weeks overdue, right at a time when there's an increased risk of fires because people are turning on dusty heating systems because of colder weather. Guess they didn't consider that consequence ahead of time.)
posted by radwolf76 at 9:49 AM on March 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Can we all collectively agree to stop this charade?

And time zones. Jesus H. Christ. Having to subtract 6 hours to figure out what time it is in New York is killing commerce with Europe.

Let's all do as ships do and use GMT always, everywhere. Stop the charade of local time.
posted by three blind mice at 10:00 AM on March 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I for one sincerely, really, double-extra like DST. It's great!

You are clearly insane.
posted by blucevalo at 10:42 AM on March 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

I am fully in favour of scrapping this utterly useless thing that we do. If you need daylight, you go ahead and wake up earlier. Not my problem.

*moves to Saskatchewan*
posted by Sys Rq at 10:53 AM on March 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

You are clearly insane.

Hating DST is the same sort of dead-inside, soulless grumpiness as hating snow in winter. Also it makes baby Jesus cry.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:19 AM on March 11, 2012 [7 favorites]

This was the first year I really really really wanted to start a protest against the darn charade. It's useless.
posted by Peach at 11:49 AM on March 11, 2012

Hating DST is the same sort of dead-inside, soulless grumpiness

Or alternatively, the same sort of thing one who has experienced life without DST might feel upon comparing the 2 alternatives. Cuz it sucks. The only good thing it ever gave us was an extra hour before last call.
posted by Hoopo at 11:52 AM on March 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

No, we just need to start work at 10am, rather than 9 or earlier. Wrap things up around 6.
posted by hellojed at 12:16 PM on March 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

hellojed: "Wrap things up around 6."

What, and drive home from work in complete darkness? no thanks.

SO is DST hate a real thing? I always thought it was something people gripe a little about around the water cooler, like complaining that it's raining today (what, would you rather we have perpetual drought?). This year the grumpiness is out in full force, though. Maybe it's that we haven't really had winter, so the hope that comes with the season-change indicator is reduced. However. Christ, I lose an hour just fuckin' around on the intarwebs. If your life is so busy and regimented that you can't lose or gain an hour (and gain that hour in the Summer! When you can have fun after work!) you're too goddamn busy.
posted by notsnot at 12:22 PM on March 11, 2012

Everyone who loves DST can come try to put my kids to bed tonight, or any of the next three nights, at their regular bedtime. The "I'm not tiiiiiiired" chorus should have you changing your tune. For a bonus, you can come by and pry them out of their beds in time for school in the morning.
posted by Lulu's Pink Converse at 12:40 PM on March 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

The daylight cycle of the seasons is about the only natural cycle that we don't ignore or try to suppress, we actually amplify the fucker

Okay, I'm a confirmed DST-hater (well, more of a DST why-do-we-keep-hitting-ourselves-maybe-we-should-stop-er) but this is the first argument in its favor I actually find myself agreeing with.

How about a compromise, we eliminate DST, but we all become locavores?
posted by hattifattener at 12:55 PM on March 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Living in northern USA, I'd love DST year round. Turning on headlights at 3pm in winter is depressing.
posted by Feisty at 12:57 PM on March 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I guess that's why DST seems so pointless to me, Feisty— during the winter, there's not a day's worth of daylight no matter how you arrange the clock. I assume there's some latitude for which DST actually provides some benefit, but I've never lived there.
posted by hattifattener at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2012

Me too Feisty - I'm a little further north, and the sun goes behind the hill at 2:30 in late december...
posted by sauril at 1:06 PM on March 11, 2012

So can we assume an equal number of lives are saved in the autumn

We can assume that, OR we can actually read the second paragraph of the linked article.
posted by hattifattener at 1:38 PM on March 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Living in northern USA, I'd love DST year round. Turning on headlights at 3pm in winter is depressing.

Agreed. I really don't understand the DST haters. Sunlight at 4am in July is pretty much useless.
posted by gjc at 1:48 PM on March 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

The continual lengthening of DST is getting a little ridiculous. I expect next year we'll go off it at Christmas and back on it at New Year's.
posted by jocelmeow at 2:04 PM on March 11, 2012

I hope they also considered 'oh shit oh shit oh shit I'm late for work' as an explanation.

Heh. Our Youtube boyfriend CGPGrey (delightful explainer of many abstractions both political and geographic) further asserts that the cost in terms of lost work productivity is something on the order of $480 million each year.
posted by psoas at 2:19 PM on March 11, 2012

What, and drive home from work in complete darkness? no thanks.

Okay, then 10-5? Sounds like a good idea to me. I bet you anything there's going to be productivity gains just because people are less tired.
posted by hellojed at 2:20 PM on March 11, 2012

You guys should move to Australia. We never have a single death from moving the clocks ahead an hour in March.
posted by bystander at 4:31 PM on March 11, 2012

When I'm Dictator for Life, the time shall be set at DST and left there. Full stop. No more changing. Period. The end. Fin.
posted by deborah at 7:52 PM on March 11, 2012

Well, obviously we need to fall back every single weekend and reduce heart attacks by 10% overall.
posted by looli at 10:11 PM on March 11, 2012

The daylight cycle of the seasons is about the only natural cycle that we don't ignore or try to suppress, we actually amplify the fucker.

We aren't actually changing the natural cycle at all, we're just changing the clocks. The phenomenon where the daylight cycle changes has nothing to do with DST; it is an existing natural cycle. I would contend that by forcing our waking hours to comply with the numbers on a clock we do in fact suppress the natural wake/sleep cycle that would otherwise change gradually with the seasons.

If your life is so busy and regimented that you can't lose or gain an hour [...] you're too goddamn busy.

Again, we are not losing or gaining an hour, as there are still 24 hours in a given day. We are shifting the clocks so that time occupies a different segment of the cycle.

I'd love DST year round.

Which, so far as I am concerned, wouldn't be DST. DST is a periodic shift in the hours of the day. Without the periodic shift forward and back, it's just a permanent adjustment of the hours of the day within the daylight cycle.

All of the things that are "achieved" with DST could be just as easily achieved by shifting business hours. Where I live there is no escaping getting up while it is dark out to go to work and coming back after it is dark again even with DST. There's like 7 hours of sunlight during winter. Hey, why don't we just work shorter days! Because business blah blah blah. I don't give a shit if it makes things harder for accounting, sorry, they get paid for a reason.

I'd rather sleep extensively during winter when I naturally want to and work shorter days - days that are adjusted to fit the current daylight period - and the longer during summer. Just adjust the working hours to fit the daylight instead of adjusting the "time" that the daylight "begins" by changing the clocks. It fucks with my head because my body knows that all of a sudden everything is happening earlier, but the time no longer reflects that.
posted by nTeleKy at 9:56 AM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

In Costa Rica, the government tried to institute daylight savings time, and the people laughed and refused to change their clocks. So the government did a public relations campaign, plastering the slogan "the night begins at six PM" everywhere, to no avail. The only thing that remained of the effort by the time I lived there in the early 1990s was a parody ad by a beer company that declared "the night begins with bohemia."
posted by umbú at 1:06 PM on March 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

We aren't actually changing the natural cycle at all, we're just changing the clocks.

Wait, what?
posted by Bookhouse at 4:15 PM on March 12, 2012