Daylight Stupid Time

 By Kim Marquardt, RN MSN

This blog post is from the Nurse Kim archives of myth busting. I want to share some "alternative" or maybe just lesser known health and wellness viewpoints for you to chew on.

*These posts are not intended as official medical advice.

They ARE meant to be fun, informative, and thought provoking, hopefully sparking an interest for you to do your own research (you can start with the links I provide!) and discover the marvels of the human body, and how it can function at its optimal performance level if we understand how it works and interacts with our environment and our diet.

I have a passion for health and wellness through lifestyle and nutrition and have done thousands of hours of research in addition to being a registered nurse for 23 years. I have done A LOT of self-experimentation in and around diet, lifestyle, body care, and supplementation and have spent a lot of time looking into the science behind it all (or lack thereof!). Check back weekly for the latest post!

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As you can probably tell from the title, I am not a fan of daylight savings time. There are some personal, logistical reasons for this but let’s also talk about what best supports our bodily rhythms and clocks!

Personal Logistics

I have chickens. I also have a full-time job. Chickens wake up when the sun rises. I leave for my job at 7:15am most days. The sun now rises around 7:05am. So now, instead of going outside in my pajamas/farm clothes (yes, they are one in the same minus the rubber boots), to feed, water, and coop clean, I have to somehow figure out how to either do all my farm chores in my extremely fancy MiraCosta work clothes of jeans and a t-shirt 😉 or get dressed in 5 minutes or less after the fact.

Not the best way to start my morning.

But on a more serious note than my clothing woes, letting the chickens out of the coop when it is barely light out puts them at risk for predators who often hunt at dusk and dawn.  

But enough about the chickens already!

Why do we have daylight stupid time in the first place?

Daylight savings time started in a small region of Canada in 1908, however, the first full countries to implement it were Germany and Austria in 1916, 2 years into World War I, in an effort to save fuel in the evenings by not having to light kerosine lamps, etc. Understandable. But last time I checked, World War I is over.

Ancestrally Appropriate

In a perfect world, we should not be waking up while it is still dark out. We are supposed to wake up (kinda like the chickens) when the sun rises. We are supposed to open our eyes to morning sunlight, which actually supports our sleep cycle that same night by setting a clock for when our body should release melatonin. Lack of morning sunlight disrupts this biological process, plain and simple.

Having more light later in the day also disrupts this cycle. We already stay up WAY too late as a society with artificial lights/devices, etc. The idea to keep it light later in the evening only compounds this issue.

Well, what can we do about it?

As of March 2023, the following states and territories will no longer be observing daylight stupid time: Arizona, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, The Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. 

Bravo! I’m moving! Just kidding.

California Legislation

California voters approved a ballot measure in 2018 to petition the federal government to move to permanent standard time or permanent daylight savings time. MOST people, unfortunately, favor permanent daylight savings time over permanent standard time, not good. Why do we need it light out at 8 at night people?

The good news is federal law currently prohibits states moving to permanent daylight savings time but does allow them to move to permanent standard time as most medical experts prefer year-round standard time and two groups of sleep specialists – the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the California Sleep Society – oppose switching to year-round daylight savings time.

Assembly Bill (AB) 2868 to make daylight savings time permanent 😞 is currently before the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which will determine whether it will go before the entire chamber for debate.

Let’s hope the government favors (common sense for once) the ancestrally appropriate standard time instead! I’d rather eat my dinner in the dark than commute in the dark and feed my chickens to the coyotes thank you very much.

Until next week ya’ll!