BLOG: An overlooked danger of daylight saving time
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I was driving out of our cul-de-sac around 7:20 this morning, heading to work.
We live in the middle of Michigan. It was very dark, shortly after dawn. Today, sunrise in Michigan was 8:02 a.m.
When I stopped at the sign to turn right, I was surprised to see a group of four or five middle school students crowding the curb waiting for the school bus at the other corner of the intersection.
I thanked God that I saw them at the last instant and that no child was crossing the intersection. An accident did not occur, but it easily could have.
Right now, in mid-October in Michigan, we are still on daylight saving time (DST). If we were not on DST, then it would have been 6:20 a.m., the kids would still be asleep, and I would still be at home. At 7:20 (short of DST), it would have been about a half-hour after sunrise. It would not have been dark.
This isn’t the case for many states. But Michigan, which is in the Midwest, is at the end of the Eastern Time zone. We are at the same time as the East Coast. So, the sun rises in our region way after it does in New York, for example, where sunrise right now is at 7:16 a.m.
As you travel west in Michigan, as soon as you cross the state border into Indiana, you will be in the CST zone, which is better, given the above calculation.
There have been numerous calls to eliminate DST via state legislatures, but this has not been achieved in most states.
There are numerous documented health risks caused by the time change, such as the effects of the loss of 1 hour of sleep in the spring, traffic accidents and heart attacks. There has been talk about serious health effects on children, especially teenagers in schools.
Even aside from health risks, this deeply rooted tradition has been annoying to people and businesses — and very annoying to me as I have written in several blog posts.
So, here we go again, DST will end on Sunday, November 5, at 2:00 a.m., when the clock will “fall back” 1 hour, and in theory, we get 1 extra hour of sleep and return to standard time.
The fall time change, the fall back, usually occurs in November and the spring change, the “spring forward,” occurs in March. For the readers of this blog, I have often written about the general and health risks of these biannual changes. A major theme has been in relation to insulin pump function, a danger from a glitch that can result in dosing errors in insulin delivery.
I have been vocal in my distaste of the DST ritual, not only in this blog, but also in other publications.
Dear Michigan legislators: Can you please eliminate the DST in Michigan?!
Reference:
- Turgeon H and Wright J. Available at: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/daylight-saving-time-bad-teenagers/627095/. Published March 18, 2022. Accessed October 25, 2023.
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