It was a good ol’ Sunday morning — Nov. 1, to be exact — as I tuned into another 11:15 a.m. Tottenham Hotspur soccer match on TV — or so I thought. Turns out the game was already two-thirds of the way through, and of course, I’d missed practically all the action.
Well, this disappointment basically sums up my experience with Daylight Savings Time (DST). It’s a genuine hassle to set the clock forward or backward twice a year, and saying I absolutely hate it is an understatement.
Now, I’m perfectly fine with sticking to one time standard that never gets changed. I’m sure we can all agree that letting Earth do its thing is enough, and there’s no reason to manually alter our clocks.
Speaking of which, I was shell-shocked when my parents told me we were moving back an hour. The sunset in October was already getting earlier and earlier, so why couldn’t we just stick with the DST schedule we’ve grown accustomed to?
Not only do I have to cope with darkness at 5 p.m. on a Friday now, but my entire schedule has been shifted. My friends and I have had to rethink our hangout times, and my workout routine has been completely scrapped due to earlier sunsets.
That’s not to say I can’t adjust, but especially as we’re in the peak of first semester schoolwork, it’s really not the right time. In fact, there’s never a right time: Why can’t we pick a time and just stick with it?
On top of the boatload of issues I’ve already mentioned, the disruption to my sleep schedule is the one that catches my attention. No one sleeps at 8 p.m. anymore, trust me. There’s no reason to have to live half of our days in darkness, only to wake up to blinding sunlight at eight in the morning.
I truly cherish my sleep, and the light seeping through the cracks between the blinds just brings me closer and closer to the suffering that is waking up. And worst of all, I check my clock and realize I’m up an hour early.
It’s only November, too. We’ve still got a whole semester ahead of us, and then it’s time to spring forward on March 8 — and endure this unnecessary hassle once again.
