Why do we inflict daylight saving time on ourselves?

[HeadingNorth]

we could set out clocks to pacific standard time or the time in Beijing and it wouldn't matter as long as the entire country had the same time, we'd all go to work at the same time of day

 

Ah ... but there's the problem. We wouldn't.

 

In May, there's approximately sixteen hours of daylight and eight of darkness; it should be the most obvious thing in the world to wake at dawn, spend sixteen hours in daylight and go to bed at dusk to sleep through the night. But how many people adjust their schedules so as to be waking at 4am in May? Most would think you were crazy for even suggesting it.

 

But if you alter all the clocks so that people can pretend they wake at 7am when it's really 4am, and pretend they've gont to bed at 11pm when it's really 8pm, they'll be happy.

[Cyclone]

How about this for a revolutionary idea........stop moaning about it and just live with it.

 

Why? It's something that can be made better, but it won't be unless people complain and point it out.

[Cyclone]

All irrelevant, as you well know.

 

When everyone walked everywhere (esp. children going to/from school) and when manufacturing was the mainstay of the UK's economy (e.g. when BST started, to assist the WW1 effort), it made sense. Now it doesn't; and the hassle involved twice-yearly outweighs any minimal benefits achieved.

 

Keep GMT permanently. Easy, see.

 

Except that it should be BST or even BST+1 that we keep.

[HeadingNorth]

Except that it should be BST or even BST+1 that we keep.

 

Most of Britain "should" be GMT minus something (between GMT plus two minutes and GMT minus a quarter-hour or so); but that would require people to show common sense and live their lives in daylight.

 

It's easier to fiddle with the clocks than it is to persuade people to be sensible.

[Honeysuckle]

gets my vote

 

and I see no point whatsoever in changing to BST and back again, it just causes disruption

 

What sort of disruption ? It never disrupts me

[Cyclone]

Most of Britain "should" be GMT minus something (between GMT plus two minutes and GMT minus a quarter-hour or so); but that would require people to show common sense and live their lives in daylight.

 

It's easier to fiddle with the clocks than it is to persuade people to be sensible.

 

Is it normal practice that noon by the sundial is also noon by the local time zone?

[HeadingNorth]

Is it normal practice that noon by the sundial is also noon by the local time zone?

 

It was to begin with - at least, once you take into account the equation of time, the average position of the noonday Sun was directly South. This is because in the absence of electric lighting, people really did base their working day on daylight as much as possible.

 

It's possible now, if people were so inclined, to have your working day at any time day or night, with electric lighting - but the less energy we waste the better, and people still should base their working day around daylight as much as possible. I don't mean, by that, that we should be at work for all the hours of available daylight - what I mean is, the amount of time before or after dawn that the general populace is getting up, and the amount of time before or after dusk that they're going to bed, should be roughly equal. At the moment they're badly out of phase; daylight savings brings them nearer to being in phase during the summer months.

[Cyclone]

During the summer you don't gain anything from making it equal though... The shortest night is only about 6 hours long and I sleep for longer than that, so there's no harm in making it asymmetrical. It's a different story in the winter of course.