Falling

Wednesday, September 04, 2024

We’re approaching a time change, another round of inner shock. Manual time changes, referring now to Daylight Saving Time (DST), affect all living beings. I wish for more citizens, thus more states, to strongly resist them.

The sudden change in daylight hours affects natural bodily rhythms. This season, with naturally reduced daylight, my chickens lay fewer eggs. As occupants of the natural world, we understand light patterns as closely related to wildlife migrations, mating seasons, and feeding habits.

When we transition to daylight savings time (DST), the sudden shift in daylight length disrupts our natural circadian rhythms. Natural light changes are disruptive and might cause difficulty falling asleep, poor sleep quality, and more daytime sleepiness. Also, the artificial disruption of our body’s internal clock can trigger negative emotions like depression and anxiety.

DST was originally implemented to conserve energy by extending daylight hours into the evening. Longer daylight hours in the evening would encourage people to spend more time outdoors, potentially increasing physical activity and improving well-being.

Daylight savings time is fine and fun, but it does not last. Soon, we will manually shift our clocks back one hour to start standard time, which also won’t last because later, we will resume DST.

Observing my chickens makes me recall semi-annually wishing to resist artificial time changes. I already feel the dread of another required change on the horizon.

Considering the horizon, I have watched with delight some newly rising moons. The episodes have illustrated one of our little planet’s most lovely elements: the moons behave routinely, precisely as expected, and with constancy despite our unpredictable earthly times.

Dear Friends: Why won’t everybody agree to dump semi-annual time changes! Diana