Spring Ahead, Fall Flat
Sun Mar 27th 2005, 5:44pm
Next weekend will be that time again, where we go through the torturous ritual of setting
our clocks one hour forward, to shift one hour of daylight from morning to evening. Or as
some people call it, Daylight Saving Time (which is kind of funny, since no daylight is
actually saved). Why do we do this to our bodies, year after year? I guess for some
people it's no big deal, but losing that hour of sleep takes a serious toll on me, and I
know I'm not alone. One study found there is a 7% increase in traffic accidents the week
after the spring time change because drivers are disoriented and sleep-deprived. And then
in the fall, the time change causes sudden darkness for nighttime commuters, yielding
similar disorientation. It's true, the extra hour of daylight in the summer can be nice,
but not all of us like being out in the sun anyway, so is it really worth it?
After so many years of enduring this obnoxious ritual, I decided to do a little research
on it. Guess whose idea it was? Of course, DST has a tumultuous history, but it can all
be traced back to Benjamin Franklin, who we all know and love, but may have forgotten he
coined such ever endearing phrases as "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy,
wealthy, and wise". (I'm not a fan of mornings, in case you didn't know).
Apparently DST equivalents exist in at least 70 countries worldwide, including all major
industrialized countries except Japan, so I'm afraid this little tradition may never go
away. But Arizona and Hawaii have the right idea, they don't do DST. Hmm, I've always
wanted to live in Hawaii.
On Mon Mar 28th 2005, 5:05pm, Forest posted:
I hate DST. >:[
On Fri Apr 1st 2005, 7:21am, Clay posted:
Man, the 'spring forward' day is one of my all-time calendar favorites. I
don't know if it's more because I like the extra hour of light in the
evening or if it's because the transition to DST signals that spring is
here, and summer is on the way.
I guess I do feel like I'm saving an hour of daylight, since I'm so rarely
up early enough to see that first hour of sun anyway.
Plus, it should be noted that I live in a part of the U.S. that has major
seasonal changes, so spring and summer are a very welcome change after
winter's been dragging out for months on end.
I could do without the bi-annual hour-shuffling ritual, though. But I'll
take that extra hour of daylight at the end of my day, thankyouverymuch. :)
On Sat Apr 2nd 2005, 2:19pm, Steve Kehlet posted:
Clay, tell me that's an April Fool's joke... We'll discuss this again on
Monday, when we're both sleep deprived :-). But you make a good case. I
suppose if I could admit to a few saving graces of DST, they would be--for
a week or so anyway--the workday seems to end earlier. And, of course, how
nice that one, blissful day is in the fall when we get an hour of extra
sleep.
On Wed Apr 13th 2005, 3:15pm, Visitor posted:
How might we be related? My great grandfather was Oswald Vinding Kehlet. He
came to California early in the century from one of the Great Lakes states.
With his sons, he owned and operated Meeks Bay Resort on the west shore of
Lake Tahoe.
Do we have a relative in common?
On Sat Apr 23rd 2005, 1:35pm, Clay posted:
OK, so I'm a bit late with this update, but what the heck ;)
The DST transition wasn't so bad this year, but worse than last year. But
I couldn't have known (well, I probably *should* have known). I was all
psyched the night before, and actually got to bed at a quasi-reasonable
hour.
So, you can imagine my surprise when my daughter was beating on my head at
5:45 in the morning, a full hour and a half earlier than her usual wake-up
time. I guess she didn't get the memo.
So, the first couple days were a tad tougher than usual, but I'm still
happy to be saving my daylight! ;)
On Mon Apr 25th 2005, 3:44pm, Steve Kehlet posted:
I hear you about the first few days being tougher. Over the time change
weekend I had the pleasure of carrying my employer's 24/7 on-call support
pager, and the first Monday (April 4th) I got paged three times in the
middle of the night (2am, 3am, 5am) by users in India. And to make matters
worse I had an important appointment to make early that morning! So in the
end, enduring one trauma suddenly made the other seem small in comparison.
So, a few weeks later, I definitely agree the extra light in the evening is
nice. Hello, summer!
On Mon Apr 25th 2005, 3:51pm, Steve Kehlet posted:
To my fellow Kehlet clan member, it's possible we're related, my Kehlet
relatives come from Illinois. But I heard somewhere that
"Kehlet" is like "Smith" in Denmark :-). I wonder how
true that is...
On Fri Nov 28th 2008, 1:46pm, Anne Björnström posted:
Hi, I searched google for the name Kehlet and your blog came up. I'm
looking for possible descendents of my ancestor Peter Kehlet, whose son
Axel Kehlet moved to Illinois. I read that your Kehlet relatives come from
Illinois so I thought maybe you've heard of Axel?
If you want, you can email me at annebjornstrom@gmail.com.
