Middle School Editorial: Daylight Savings Time

The much-despised Daylight Saving Time (DST) originated to allow for longer daylight—switching one hour of light from the night to the morning. It was first implemented in 1918 as a way to conserve energy and maximize daylight. Today, the national time shift is annoying and useless to many people; some states are ridding the tradition. 

The Uniform Time Act, which was signed in 1966 by President Lyndon Johnson, was an attempt to unify the nation’s time. Before then, it was used nationally during WW1 and WW2, but after the wars, some states changed back to no DST and some kept practicing it. 

Today, many states are attempting to remove it, including Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma. Already, Arizona has dropped the tradition, keeping time the same the whole year. 

Daylight Savings Time is as useless as it is aggravating. Having to adjust one hour, confusion and frustration arise. There is no reason to continue the impractical tradition; it is proven that it does not conserve much energy and that health issues may result because of DST. 

Such health issues can occur because one can lose 40-50 minutes of sleep. Both depression and bipolar disorder spike up, as do heart attacks and strokes. Fatigue and tiredness are also nationwide issues that are prominent near shifts from standard time to DST. Teenagers are especially susceptible to weariness. 

Overall, Daylight Savings Time is unnecessary; the only benefit is one extra hour of daylight. Other than that, all that is left is health risks and irritability around the date of each shift.