Daylight Saving Time: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Daylight Saving Time can be a nuisance, with all the clock changing, wondering which clocks will automatically change, and adjusting sleep schedules. The extra hour of sleep one night in the fall makes it seem worth the effort, until that stupid clock goes a little bit past where it was supposed to be, requiring another 12 hour adjustment. Then there's the need to change the a.m. to p.m. if the alarm is going to go off at the right time.

On top of all that, some who do business in more than one time zone have to remember whether the other places will observe daylight saving time. Indiana resisted changing all the clocks for years. It was more convenient to keep some of the counties on standard time all year. With state lines bordering the Greater Chicago and Greater Cincinnati areas, which are in the Central and Eastern time zones respectively, it made sense to change the clocks with them. Much of the rest of the state, split into two time zones because of its location, remained on standard time all year. This meant there was no need to change the clocks but to remember whether it was Eastern or Central time.

Arizona is a state where there is no need to change clocks, except in The Navajo Nation. The rest of the state is on Pacific time in the summer and Mountain in the winter. If you need to call someone there from another time zone, an easy way to remember what time it is there is by thinking summer=swimming and winter=skiing. In the summer, their extra hour of daylight is at the beginning of the day instead of the end.

Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands all remain on standard time all year. So do Japan, China, Iceland and many countries in Africa and South America. Doing business in almost any of these places already involves drastically shifting one's sense of time though, so one more complication is no big deal.

On the bright side (groan), setting the clocks back later in 2007 than they were previously changed will mean more daylight for trick-or-treaters. This will make it a safer adventure for the little monsters. It will make it easier for drivers to see them and steer clear of them. It might increase the number of trick-or-treaters coming to houses in places formerly too far to walk in the dark, increasing both their bounty and the candy makers'. This could mean less candy left over in candy bowls at the end of the night. Following this train of thought, Daylight Saving Time will be good for weight control from now on. It must be good for something.