Summer time has left the building, pack away your shorts, T-shirts and all your other summertime getup. Winter! It’s arrived with its dark evenings inviting us to get ready for the coming months. Not to mention the allowance of an extra hour of being in a comatose state. The light-filled evenings may feel like a distant memory.
The cosy feeling of winter and all the festivities that it brings along with it, hot chocolate hand warmers and all kinds of warm yummy appetisers. We exchange our barbeques for a logged filled fire or the flick of a switch called central heating.
Now that the clocks have regressed backwards, and it’s woolly hats and scarves at the ready. It’s not like we need the clocks regressing to catapult us to, “Hey winter’s coming.” Thanks to the seasonal change, that shove is done for us.
Daylight saving (DLS) was introduced in Britain in 1907 by William Willett based on a published paper titled ‘The Waste of Daylight ‘ His idea was to encourage the nation to make better use of the sunlight.
Should we be opting for the clocks to remain as they are or stay sprung in BST or DLS as it’s also known? Do the benefits of having longer brighter days (BST) outweigh the winter time? Are we prepared to forfeit our extra hour of enjoying our dream filled comatose moments to have longer days throughout the year? Would it impact on our winter festivities? Would our change in mood be affected? would we be a happier more energised nation? What would really change if BST stayed with us indefinitely?
Yes, there are obvious disadvantages of not having continued DLS which may affect our working hours, but in this age of twenty-four “hourism”. The 9-6 will still be the same. Children having less daylight playtime in the evenings and in an age where we are beginning to rely on solar to fuel our homes and vehicles, it would greatly impact our consumption.
What are your thoughts on having longer or shorter days?
Wow… completely understand your “thinkology”. On the one hand not having DLS affects working lives, our children playtimes etc. Having said that what are the overall benefits of having it? We are all governed by earths natural timings and rhythms; yet we “keep” very different hours albeit by choice.
The point I’m trying to make is what happens in the few places on earth where people are subjected to 24 hrs of daylight for months until it changes to 24hrs of night? They appear to ‘get on’ with it (whether liked or not) they’ve no choice in the matter. We now live in a world where we’ve become conditioned to 24 hourism does BST/DLS affect it?
The other thing maybe to consider is who really benefits? Is it a human condition?
Crops grow, animals adapt whether is more darkness or light as winter and summer seasonal changes happen (as they always have and undoubtedly always will) … yet regardless of the “clock” does it bear or have any relevance to nature’s “clock”.
Thank you Cemeya for bringing this conversation it’s an interesting debate; incidentally what happened in the days before Mr William Willett – how did they cope? Again I ask Who really benefited or benefits from it and what were the real reasons for suggesting and making better use of sunlight/daylight hours??…
Loving your thoughts.
You have given me good for thought. I love the sun and I also love to sleep.