The swinging pendulum of time changes

Victory Cigar Congress Passes DST

Source: Public Domain

Three years ago, I published a blog post that said, “Today there are calls to keep Daylight Saving Time year-round.” Much of this opinion was based on concerns that messing with time has harmful effects on the body, because it affects the sensitivity of the internal clock to daylight and melatonin secretion. While it confuses the pineal gland, it is not enough to destabilize the mind or body.

A newer one Psychology today Kevin Bennett's post looks at a bill recently passed by the U.S. Senate to make Daylight Saving Time permanent. The so-called “sunshine law” states that a brighter afternoon boosts economic activity and reduces crime. Additionally, it would supposedly reduce seasonal depression.

There might be some truth in that. But as Bennett points out, “In the days and weeks following the twice-yearly time change, researchers have observed an increase in car accidents and heart attacks.” I would add that there is plenty of research that concludes that Daylight saving time provides children with more time for outdoor play and vitamin D, and that fewer heart attacks, strokes or car accidents are reported compared to standard time (DST). or reported cases of depression. But daylight saving time has been with us for 106 years, before the onslaught of cars and their accidents and statistics about depression. So I wonder how the research data can provide any conclusions about car accidents and depression, which are seasonal. Logical reasoning suggests that late afternoon light helps us stay emotionally healthy; However, I also wonder why flying across a single time zone has no effect on your internal clock the next day.

Samuel P. Avery, engraver, “Universal Dial Plate or Times of All Nations,” in Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion (Boston), June 25, 1853, page 416

Source: Public Domain

We forget that before the US Civil War, clocks were set to midday where the sun was at its highest. If it was midday in Washington, DC, it would have been 12:12 p.m. in New York because the sun was at its highest in New York 12 minutes earlier. Across the country, noon would have been timed to the position of the sun in the sky, so noon in Albany, New York, was two minutes after that in New York City. There were no longitudinal time zones. Every city on the continent had its own lunch.

One can only imagine the difficulties this schedule caused for the expansion of the railway lines. There was still a time when time balls fell from towers to mark midday as the calibration point for local time. Practically it was a good idea. At any time, except on cloudy days, you can estimate daylight times by looking at the sun and feeling the time pass through the day. This may be why our analog clocks have a 12 at the top of the dial. Of course there was no precision, but for most practical purposes there was no need.

If yesterday there had been a line of clocks strung across the continent, stretching from the extreme eastern point of Maine to the extreme western point on the Pacific coast, and each clock had sounded the alarm at noon, the local time there would have been continuous ringing from east to west , which lasts 3 1/4 hours. There will undoubtedly be considerable confusion across the continent this afternoon. – The New York Times, 1883

Here's an amusing solution: Instead of setting the clock forward and back twice a year with an hourly jump for the internal clock, why not just let the clock go forward 10 minutes a month and backward 10 minutes a month starting April 1st? after October 1st? Who will notice a 10 minute loss or gain every month? Ah, but you say 10 minutes is a big jump. You could miss the bus to work in 10 minutes, even if the bus clock changes to reflect the time change.

Okay, then how about we set the clock forward by 19 seconds every day on April 1st and set it back by 19 seconds every day after October 1st? Then you could say we missed a bunch of seconds that seemed to have disappeared. When the real clock reaches October 1st, the cycle begins again. Who – other than Demetrios Matsakis, who heads the time service division at the US Naval Observatory – would notice that 19 seconds is moving forward or backward?

However, it might be too confusing for the public to agree with missing 19 seconds per day. Some people would claim that they are robbed of time. Others would claim that God created time (which he didn't; humans did) and we shouldn't manipulate it. Others would be against messing with time as it could further impact the health of the internal clock and the balance of the mind.

Luckily we have that Timer– Environmental time cues on endogenous biological rhythms – to help us synchronize our bodies with the environment. We are not plants with relatively simple biological rhythms synchronized with light, temperature and other climate-related cycles. Human rhythms are disrupted by meals, sleep habits, work and social routines that keep our minds and bodies in sync with solar time. There are many different ones TimerThe most obvious are light, medication, temperature, exercise and eating habits. They signal a tiny region of the hypothalamus that the concentrations of chemical components in the body should change to allow synchronization with the external 24-hour cycle.

We also change our routines twice a year. This is a plus for your health.