Permanent Daylight Savings Time to the rescue!

If you live somewhere that observes Daylight Savings Time, you know the time changes twice a year. In March, it “springs forward” an hour and November it “falls back” an hour. 

After a survey of the people of British Columbia showed that 93% of people wanted to scrap the change and move to permanent daylight savings time, the government is moving forward with that as its plan. That means that next spring the clock will go forward an hour and stay like that permanently.

Moving to permanent daylight savings is a welcome change. My own family is very happy about the change.

Personally I’ve never really had a great experience with daylights savings. Sure, there are some perks. In November we get an extra hour of sleep which I do like. It’s like I would be starting school at 9:40 instead of 8:40. 

But the cons out weigh the pros. 

Many times I’ve had teammates come late to games due to the time change. I’ve also been extremely early to school which took up so much of my time and felt like a waste. 

Stopping the change makes sense, but the government still had to decide which time is better to keep? Do we cancel Daylight Savings Time for more sunlight in the morning or adopt permanent Daylight Savings Time for more sunlight in the evening?

My mother says that an extra hour of light at night would be better than an extra time in the morning. My mother doesn’t get much sleep having to deal with four kids that play soccer 7 days a week, two dogs, three students and works a full time job. She has a lot on her plate and an extra hour of light at night would help her finish anything she needs done. Also my brothers play soccer at 6 and by the end it’s dark so that light would be nice for them. 

On the other hand, both my brothers wake up early and think an extra hour of sunlight in the morning would help them start their day. But their morning sports are indoors, and their evening sports are outside where natural light comes in handy.

A commenter on Reddit describes a bad history with daylights savings, telling a story about how the change made them late for college class. After she forgot to set her clocks back an hour, she find herself an hour behind. “Realizing my mess up I pretty much sprinted and drove to college and arrived to the test 35 minutes late.” 

In many areas, the time change remains a hassle which is not needed, but as more places like British Columbia scrap it, others may follow. And they should. 

As argued by the co-founders of Stop the Time Change in BC, in a submission to BC’s survey,  “Time Change is an outdated, archaic tradition that is costing health care, and ICBC claims and Mental Health issues, sleep disorders, unruly students, confused seniors, [and] tired parents of babies,” they write.  “Even pets become absolutely annoying to their owners when the time changes.”

Cover Image: Brittany Perry