As if the incoming cold weather is not disheartening enough, Daylight Savings Time has made our days shorter and increased the amount of time we spend in darkness. On the first Sunday of each November, the United States sets the clocks back one hour starting at 2 a.m. Although sunset in Charlottesville now occurs at a premature 5:07 p.m.., this is helpful in some ways because it gives exhausted college students an extra hour of much needed rest. Yet it is nonetheless arcane and in need of revision. While there are some compelling arguments for keeping Daylight Savings Time in place, their rationales are not practical in the 21st century world and fail to adequately account for basic human health concerns.
Benjamin Franklin first initiated the idea of Daylight Savings Time as a joke while serving as the Ambassador to France in 1784. He hypothesized that adjusting the time in this way would “economize candle usage by getting people out of bed earlier in the morning, making use of the natural morning light instead.” Although he was pushing his intellectual experimentalism to the limits, his concern about conserving energy remained a cogent reason for Daylight Savings Time even two centuries later. While Congress first implemented Daylight Savings Time during World War I, it was expanded in 1974 as a result of the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973, which necessitated the conservation of energy on a massive scale. Energy conservation was a high priority during both centuries, and since Daylight Savings Time could reduce the amount of time people spend in the dark, it was seen as a viable policy solution.
Yet in the 21st century, Daylight Savings Time lacks the same viability it once enjoyed. First, our energy sources have clearly adapted since Franklin’s era. Whereas wax conservation was a concern during his lifetime, no household in America uses candles as their primary energy source. Although power has obviously been revolutionized by the light bulb, it is still a somewhat finite resource just as candle wax once was. Policymakers are rightfully concerned about this, yet they should not be anxious about the effects of an all-out embargo such as the one that occurred in 1973. CNN Money’s Matt Egan claims that the United States is “tantalizingly close” to energy independence, which is perhaps best underscored by the fact that oil imports as a percentage of daily demand have decreased from 65 percent to 28 percent over the past decade. Thus, while Daylight Savings Time does preserve energy, such a drastic measure is not nearly as necessary currently as it once used to be and only preserved 1 percent more energy overall.
The benefits of Daylight Savings Day are further delegitimized after taking into account its impact on human health. Approximately 10-20 percent of Americans suffer at least mild mood changes and depression as a result of the transformation into winter. Physicians call this disorder Seasonal Affective Disorder and agree that its primary trigger is lack of sunlight. This is why it is commonly treated with phototherapy, also known as light therapy, which aims to expose patients to light to compensate for their inability to access sunlight in the winter. While humans obviously cannot control the natural change of earth’s seasons, they can reduce the “winter blues” by making eradicating a policy that adds an hour of darkness per day, especially since it will cause millions of Americans to endure rush hour in the dark.
While Daylight Savings Time has shown to have potent benefits in the past, it is not a justifiable program in the 21st century. U.S. energy policy has transformed the country into a more independent energy user, while increased usage of solar and wind energy has reduced reliance on a single raw material. Likewise, the program’s health impact is substantial and not worth the insignificant benefits it has. Thus, eliminating Daylight Savings Time would be in the best interest of all Americans, especially those who are most prone to seasonal mood changes.
Jesse Berman is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at j.berman@cavalierdaily.com.
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