Those of you who know me personally have already heard my diatribes against Daylight Saving Time (DST), which luckily I have been able to avoid for the most part, until recently. I grew up mostly in Arizona, and then moved to Indiana, both of which are (or have usually been) sane enough to understand that for a given location, you get as much daylight as you get, no matter what you do, and it is up to individuals to decide how to make use of it. (A friend once described DST as being like cutting a foot off of one end of a piece of rope and tying it onto the other end, and thinking you’ve made the rope longer.)
Last year Indiana adopted DST, and this year the US as a whole extended DST, much to my irritation. The economic effects of the extension are still to be determined, but the effects on human circadian rhythms have not been very extensively studied. However, a recent European study addressed this question, examining how people’s sleep/wake cycles adjust to DST.
The conclusion was that circadian rhythms do not necessarily adapt well. People who are night owls are apt to have the most difficulty, in particular with the leap ahead by one hour in the spring. (I’m definitely a night owl and I do not at all like the onset of DST in the spring, so this made me feel a bit better. Maybe I’m not just a crank with a bee in my bonnet.) This article from Science Daily has more information. I especially like the description of the fall transition as the “release” from DST. That’s exactly what it feels like.
No
You are definitely a crank with a bee in your bonnet. But not about Daylight Slaving Time. I for one, am sick of waiting five or six months to get back an hour’s lost sleep. Also, love naps. The true test of maturity. When taking a nap is a good thing? You have arrived. All the best,
-R