Saturday, March 23, 2019

Wintertime...Summertime... and the stolen time.



Like every year, those who live in the northern hemisphere, feel the joy of seeing the snow, finally melting. It’s perhaps one of the best times of the year. Our senses are waking up, the birds are singing, the flowers start blooming, and the days are getting longer.
It is a countdown to the run to the beach, to the ice-cream booths and to the holiday period.
It’s Springtime!

Yet, there is a price to be paid, and that it the day when the clocks will be switched to the summertime. Some countries have already switched to it. Meanwhile, others have to wait for the end of March to meet their fate and lose an hour of sleep.

It might be easy to say that it is only one hour, and we should also be used to it, for the times we are traveling abroad. But just like the worst jetlag, this is never coming as easy as it is on the paper.
Many people do not have any trouble in adapting themselves to the new time, but there are those sensitive people, and I talk about those who are particularly suffering from insomnia, for which this slight disruption means one week worth of recovery.
Concerning me, I do not have any problem, but considering the number of light hours usable in my country, the DST seems to be a waste of time if not totally worthless.
In summertime, here the sun barely sets, so what’s the need for a change of time? On the other hand on wintertime the sun barely rises, and again I am wondering what the need for two different times is.
The main difference to be noticed is on Spring and Fall, and from the mere practical point of view, we would benefit from just one single time, the one we use in winter.
Whether back in the days when the daylight saving time started to be in use, there was a  meaning (although it is just an illusion and the days are still 24 hours long), nowadays that purpose got lost or dimmed. Instead, there have been many studies about the adverse effects on the human brain and body caused by the time switch.
There has been in the recent years a log debate about whether we should give up the DST change and it seemed that although everybody seems to agree and get rid of it, nobody dares to start and say “Ok, this has been the last time we move our clock.”
Fact is that I suppose it is not even that easy to take the decision and until that glorious day, I hope you will survive the next DST switch and will enjoy the new season at its fullest.
Have an awesome weekend, everybody!

1 comment:

The long road of writing a book.

Publishing a book is a journey on a rocky path that involves several stages, from writing and pre-editing to editing, formatting, selecting ...