I need to know how you feel about perpetual daylight savings time

[andrewducker]

Poll #26298

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 66

View Respondents

If I lived somewhere where I had to do one of the following I would rather

View Answers

Get up while it was still dark
35 (53.0%)

Go home from work in the dark
31 (47.0%)

Comments

[dewline]

I am unhappy about DST's existence because I have had to do both. And, depending on what kind of work I end up with next, I might have to resume doing both. That could make undeserved trouble for other people I care about nowadays.

[hilarita]

You may inadvertently be polling for larks and owls...

[cmcmck]

I'm a lark, so definitely prefer the former.

[andrewducker]

I'm an owl, and find getting up in the dark really hard. Walking home in the dark on the other hand, is fun.

[darkoshi]

I chose my answer because getting up in the dark doesn't seem so bad, because it is often followed by a beautiful sunrise and daylight. And because when I worked in the office I found it rather depressing for it to be dark already when I left work in the winter (in those days when I was still keeping more normal hours).
But I'm also an owl, and my current habits are quite at odds with my answer.

[rhythmaning]

I don't work (retired) so neither of these are appropriate...

Though I think I wake up when it's light, so that's probably (b).

[mair_in_grenderich]

I work to my own schedule, but I read the question as "if I had to do one or the other"... I really hate getting up to an alarm clock in the dark.

[rhythmaning]

Also, it won't be long in Scotland until you can do both!

[andrewducker]

I know :-(

[mtbc]

One reason I'm glad to have moved twenty degrees further south!

[pink_halen]

I don't care either way. I just don't want to change the stupid clocks.
Daylight savings is quite a misnomer because there is still the same amount of daylight.

[rmc28]

Fistbump of solidarity from someone else who hates changing the clocks twice a year. (Even more annoying when engaged with regular events happening in both north America and Europe, and thus two pairs of out-of-sync stupid clock changes a year.)

[stormclouds]

I agree with this. I got really confused on Sunday and had to ask my Facebook friends if it was first 1 am or second 1 am because I was too tried to work it out. And I can never remember which devices change on their own and which don't. This is not helped by an ancient ipod changing itself whilst my phone, which claims it does, doesn't. And don't get me started on the sodding microwave.

[ninetydegrees]

I don't mind either and it all depends on my commute (and I think at some point we're going to have to think about how we're going to work or send kids to school in the daylight when it's unbearably hot/humid) but I want the one which is as close to UTC 0 as possible because my body hates DST. And this might be contradictory mind you because I'm too tired to think clearly, I also want the one where the sun doesn't set late so my body doesn't think it's not the time to sleep since there is so much light. OTOH I also like the transition between daylight and dark when going home as it helps me as well.

[rmc28]

I already live somewhere where I have to do both of these for a period of each winter (when I was going to work in an office). Now I have thoroughly proved to my own and my employer's satisfaction that I can do a good couple of hours work after getting home from the afternoon school run, I probably never have to go home in the dark again - I live far enough south for 4pm to be light year-round even in GMT. But I used to especially hate the jump into darkness of my homeward commute around 5pm every autumn when the clocks changed.

I was getting up in the dark before the clocks changed last weekend, and I will be getting up in the dark again before the end of the year, and I still think the faff with changing the clocks is the worst part of the whole business.

[jack]

I've heard a lot of opinions about this and not really seen clearly enough what I would ACTUALLY care about. I think the thing is, in the darkest months, Nov/Dec/Jan I definitely prefer having it light by the time I need to leave the house (say 8:30 ish). And then Feb/Mar/Sep/Oct I would prefer having a later sunset, to avoid mid-afternoon darkness, because even in BST it's light by the time I get up. And then the rest of the year I've a mild preference for a sunset later so the evening is a bit more light but I don't really mind that much.

If I could adjust the sun I'd have the light always start at 8:00 and last as long as it lasted :) But if I could adjust the clock, I'm not sure what helps. The current system doesn't really give me a choice about "go home in the dark" -- it makes the sunset go later just at the point when it'd start being light anyway.

So I guess all-year-round BST would be marginally better for me, but if I got up an hour earlier, I'd probably prefer all-year-round-GMT. 3 months of GMT would probably be slightly better for me than 6 months, but I agree that would be silly :)

I agree that changing the clocks is silly, but I'm used to it, so for me it's a minor cost and a minor benefit and I don't really mind either way.

In fact, I hear a lot of vehement denunciation, but I'm not sure what options people genuinely prefer. Some people really hate changing the clocks, which is fair enough. Some people hate getting up in the dark, or having children walk to work in the dark, which is reasonable. I think there's no-one passionately in favour of lighter evenings, but there's a lot of small benefits of having light for longer (I am more likely to leave the house in the evening if it's light). So I'm really not sure how to compare three options, one of which with many small benefits, two of have a big cost for a proportion of people.

[chess]

The 'Lighter Later' campaign slogan suggests that there are people passionately in favour of lighter evenings...

[andrewducker]

In the summer I like them, up to a point (which is why I have blackout curtains)

[flemmings]

I'm strongly for lighter evenings. Means I can do things then, like shop, which because of presbyopia and arthritis are unadvised in the dark. I rarely had morning shifts pre-pandemic and they were a pain for this owl, but having the sky grow light as I left for work compensated for a lot. Going home in the dark sucked. Icy sidewalks + can't see a thing = not good.

[momentsmusicaux]

Urgh.

Also, 'saving'.

[snippy]

I am a morning person, which is why I'd rather have more light in the evening - when I'm tired and need the help of extra light to navigate home.

[gingicat]

This. But I can barely drive in the dark at all these days.

[gingicat]

When I worked full-time I was doing both most days from October-March, but if we moved Massachusetts out of EST into AST, I'd at least not have to go *home* in the dark.

Also that's fewer hours of SAD lamp.

[ironymaiden]

All I want is to never disturb my sleep pattern, instead of doing it twice a year.

[calimac]

x Leave the fricking time alone. Don't change the clocks twice a year, and don't invent an artificial "year-round DST" to try to make people stay up later at night or whatever it's supposed to make them do. Time zones, yes (and leave their borders alone, too: in the US we have a long history of shifting them around), but otherwise just LEAVE THE TIME ALONE.

[lilysea]

Here in Western Australia

I LOATHE daylight savings

among other things

it means school kids are walking home at the hottest/sunniest time of the day in summer

[because school lets out at 3pm, which under daylight savings becomes what would otherwise be 2pm]

which means more heat exhaustion / sunburn etc

[wildeabandon]

Mostly I'm another vote for 'I don't particularly care, I just want to stop changing twice a year', but I enjoy sunrises, so consider getting up before it gets light a net positive.

[nickbarlow]

I really hate getting up in the dark, especially when I was going into London to work and so missing any sunrises by being stuck on tubes, trains etc. But I think the main problem is that whatever you do with the clocks, places like the UK are only ever going to get limited hours of daylight in the depths of winter.

[andrewducker]

Yeah. But I can't change whether we get lots of sunlight in Edinburgh, but I do have preferences for whether it overlaps (as much as possible) with my morning or evening time.

[marahmarie]

Ah, there should have been a "neither". They both suck but getting home in the dark is nominally (just barely nominally) better than running around in the dark at the beginning of day, which has always totally weirded me out.

Also, daylight savings time should be abolished and I'm in the camp of "Ultimately choose either I'm not going to die on one hill or another, just stop moving the damn time around on me".

The clocks go back tonight over here and I am *not* looking forward to it as it takes part of the most productive time of day for me and trashes the outdoor portion of it almost entirely.

[andrewducker]

I can't see how "If I lived somewhere where I had to" allows for a "neither" option...

[marahmarie]

Just because I have to doesn't mean I want to or would rather do one or the other.