I woke up at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning for tennis practice, feeling exhausted as my alarm continued to ring. The night before, I had gone to bed at my usual time of 10:30 p.m., but thanks to Daylight Savings Time (DST), I had lost an hour of precious sleep.
Every year, lasting from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in Nov., the clocks roll forward an hour. Used by almost 40% of the countries in our globe, DST was originally introduced to conserve energy and make better use of daylight. However, in today’s world, the negative effects far outweigh any potential benefits. From my experience, it disrupts sleep schedules, creates unnecessary confusion and affects mental focus.
One of the biggest issues relates to disruptions in rest and sleep. Regardless of if you lose an hour or gain an hour, people are forced to adapt to new daily routines. Sudden shifts such as this lead to increased fatigue, reduced productivity and higher risks of accidents. Studies have demonstrated that heart attacks and strokes become more common in the days or months following the time change, as DST throws off your circadian rhythm—your natural 24-hour cycle. In the following weeks of DST during the springtime, I always feel tired and groggy in the first couple periods of school. This affects my ability to focus, especially during tasks that require high levels of deep thought. It also affects my ability to play sports, as sleep is crucial to physical performance and feeling ‘fresh.’
Many people believe the solution is to simply sleep earlier. However, for many busy high school students like myself, this is near impossible. Juggling extracurriculars, classes and a sport makes it difficult to find time for adequate rest, with multiple assignments and responsibilities piling up. Losing an extra hour of sleep due to DST only worsens the situation, as eliminating DST entirely would be a more effective solution for students.
Beyond these concerns, DST also creates inconvenience and confusion. People must adjust their clocks and deal with scheduling conflicts, as many may forget about DST. Last year, I was once late to tennis practice with a friend. It is also unreasonable to still be implementing this system when it is needlessly complicated. Many different states and countries start and end DST at different times, which creates many logistical and communicative headaches for businesses.
Given all of these issues, it is clear that DST is an unnecessary and harmful policy that should be abolished. It disrupts sleep, creates confusion and is detrimental to both mental and physical health. Instead of forcing people to adjust their schedules twice a year, we should adopt a consistent time system without DST.
