This week will be tough. We all lost an hour of sleep because of daylight saving time Sunday morning. Apparently, it is supposed to be to help “spring ahead” but if anything, it makes you want to move back to bed.
We are very tired this week. Well, we are always tired because putting the newspaper together for you, our lovely readers, takes us into the dark hours of the night. But, this is because of something completely different.
This lovely time change can be credited to Benjamin Franklin in 1784. He noticed that people burned candles at night, but slept past dawn. However, that was just a theory he proposed in a journal titled “An Economic Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.”
Daylight saving time wasn’t implimented until former President Lyndon Johnson signed the Uniformed Time Act into law in 1966. It was originally meant to conserve fuel during World War 1.
Saving fuel and energy is all fine and dandy, but what about the effects it has on people? Human beings?
According to USA Today, “One Finnish study found a spike in heart attacks during the first week of the new time. Researchers associated the results with sleep deprivation, which affects heart health.
“A Canadian researcher found a 5 percent to 7 percent increase in fatal car accidents in the three days after the switch to daylight saving time. Other studies have seen a similar increase in accidents in the fall when we gain that hour back.”
We have been discussing it, and we feel as though daylight saving time has good intentions, but it isn’t 1966 anymore. We understand the need to save electricity, but maybe there is another way to do it? Any suggestions?
We know it’ll be rough, but be safe.Try to get yourself on a sleep cycle again to avoid fatigue.