We've always been slightly suspicious of Daylight Saving, haven't we?
An abrupt change in our sleeping schedules; shorter days, longer nights right in time for the cold, dreary New York City weather; and for what? Saving energy?
Turns out, our suspicions were not entirely unfounded.
The numbers are about as miserable as you felt that first morning, waking up-- probably hungover --the sun pouring over your face, only to find that it's a whole hour earlier than you even need to be awake.
Not only does DST not save energy, but the disruption of those sleeping patterns resulted in upwards of $200 million in economic losses, according to Business Insider.
We've been dealing with DST since its inception in 1918, thanks to Woodrow Wilson, a decidedly bad U.S. President (and, for the sake of trivia, one of the first to openly fear dissent and unpatriotic sentiments).
Then President Bush lengthened it an extra month back in 2005 as part of a sweeping energy bill declaring we needed to reduce dependency on foreign oil; a paradox in its own right from a similarly bad President.
But just how bad has Daylight Saving been across the board? Well, Axis Maps cartographer, Andy Woodruff made some incredible interactive maps showing the inconsistencies of DST's "benefits" across the country.
This first map shows DST in its current pattern. The darker the purple, the less days those regions have with reasonable sunrise and sunset times. As you can see, most of the country doesn't have many days with a reasonable sunrise time.
That would at least somewhat explain why DST has been linked to traffic accidents, heart attacks, Seasonal Affective Disorder, among other run-of-the-mill unpleasantries.
As you can see from this second map, things get much, much drearier if we ever considered making it a more pronounced, all-year ordeal (the same as shifting everyone's time zone one to the East).
Sure, sunsets don't really see too much change. That's good. We should all still be alert, awake, with our heads to the grindstone by 5 p.m. What sucks? Waking up in darkness when you need to get your morning started.
But what we all really want is this beautiful, evenly-distributed goldenrod hue.
If you're working 40 hours a week, you want to wake up in the light, and head home from the office in a similarly alert state of mind. Hard to do that if it's pitch black outside, isn't it?
It's completely normal to hate Daylight Saving. It's frustrating. You have to remember to change the clocks on the oven, your microwave, your wall, and in your car. Sure, those are minor inconveniences, but they add up.
But maybe you're just living in the wrong place. For that, Woodruff had jokes. “[M]aybe you could cut your coffee budget if you live on the western side of your time zone,” he wrote. “Just remember you’d be giving up those wonderful summer evenings.”
Thanks, Woodruff. How about we just get rid of Daylight Saving? We can literally count the ways it's not helping anyone.
Check out 7 Amazing Ways to Go Hard This First December Weekend in NYC.
[via CityLab] [Feature Image Courtesy CityLab]