I HATE Standard Time.

This time of year and in the spring, everyone complains about the time change. We hate the disruption that change brings. Yet many people declare that they LOVE Standard time.

Me? Not so much.

In case you're confused about which we have when, we are now in Standard time. Back in the 1800s when time standards were being adopted around the world, Standard time showed the relationship between local time and time anywhere in the world. It was mainly adopted to make train schedules work.

During WWI, many countries began adopting Daylight Savings time to save energy and increase productivity. At the moment, the US government has declared that -for most of the US- daylight savings time is in force roughly 7.5 months of the year (mid-March through end of October). Standard time rules during the winter months when increased darkness does little to effect energy savings.

Beside the disruption in sleep patterns (and I understand major confusion among animals), most people really have little problem with one time or the other. I say this because at BOTH time changes people complain about hating Daylight Savings Time and, I'm sorry, but you can only hate it at one change. If you really hate DST, then you spent the last weekend celebrating the clocks move.

I, however, truly hate standard time and was sorry to see last Saturday come.

See, like many animals, I have a set circadian rhythm. My body wakes up at its own same inner-clock time and does not fall back to sleep. I could lie in bed more, but I will get no additional rest. During DST, I awake within 10 minutes of 7 am; a decent time to get up considering I go to bed at 11 pm. Close to the eight hours sleep I need.

You see where this is going, right? During ST, I wake up at 6 am. Even if I went to bed at 11 pm. Even if I'm still tired. Even if it's dark.

My body doesn't recognize the time change and there is no way to train it to stay asleep an hour longer. I wish I could.

So I hate Standard Time and my lost one hour of sleep every night. I wish could accept it as the chance to be more productive for an hour, but that doesn't seem to happen. The extended dark doesn't lend itself to more productivity.

Those who love Standard time and hate DST, please tell me why?

I also blog at: Weight for Deb and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.

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