Blog 3893 – 07.20.2026

Daylight Savings Time

I have never been a fan of Daylight Savings Time. Long ago we humans learned to managed fire to give us light to work by in the evenings to get more done before bedtime. In my work travels I spent several weeks in both Aberdeen, Scotland and Kenai Alaska in June and July, their longest daylight period. Alaska has long been known as “the land of the midnight sun.” Aberdeen and Kenai are at about the same latitude and experience the same sunlight experience of lots of sunlight in the short summers and little in the long winters.

Daylight Savings Time just does not work that far from the equator, north or south. I submit to you that it does not work that well anywhere. It interrupts our sleep patterns, our circadian rhythms.  The twice a year changing of the clocks causes an unnecessary strain on our immune systems. 

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill to make Daylight Savings Time permanent year round. If anything we should be making Standard Time permanent. Of the two it conforms best to those sleep patterns mentioned above. Scientists and doctors think permanent Standard Time is the better choice. Business folks and politicians prefer permanent Daylight Savings Time. 

We shall see which argument prevails.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White