In Defense of Daylight Savings

About this time every year, article after article after article comes out about how terrible daylight saving time is. It doesn't save energy. It makes everyone tired. It's economically disruptive. It's archaic.

I suppose that's to be expected. We all get grumpy when an hour of our weekend is taken away. And when an hour of sleep is taken away from us (though we don't direct this same kind of anger at Netflix for some reason). 

I get it. And I feel the same way. I used to hate the time change. I still do really. It throws everything off for a while. The great schedule that you've got your kids on has to change all of the sudden. And try explaining that to a toddler.

But really, are we going to blame all of our problems on daylight savings? We all know it's coming, but how many of us decided to stay up watching a movie anyway (I raise my hand as guilty on that one). Yeah, we're tired. But how often is that the case? Always? It's just this weekend we can all point to the same culprit and direct all our anger at it.

I look forward to daylight savings every year. I want the long evenings. I don't need extra daylight in the morning. Mornings are for working. Or sleeping in. Evenings are for relaxing, spending time with family, grilling, ball games, etc. A little bit of summer is what the whole year is all about (John Mayer agrees). And those summer nights are what summer is all about.

And let's be honest, how many of us like changing our clocks in the fall and losing an hour of daylight in the evening? I don't know anyone who likes that. Our consolation prize is getting an extra hour of sleep, but that's a small comfort when you're driving home from work at 5pm and it's already dark out.

I would certainly prefer to not have any time change too. But I would prefer to have daylight savings all year long. If we can make that happen, I'm on board. If not, I'll live with switching the clocks twice a year in order to enjoy longer evenings. Tiredness be damned.