This morning, what we like to call "Government Time" is over. Some people call it "Daylight Saving". Whatever it is, clearly the people who advocate it have not read the research that shows the body's circadian rythym never adjusts to the "new" time and that all kinds of problems are caused by the messin' round with the clocks!
In Perth, a quaint and somewhat backward city on the Western half of Australia, we've had three referendums in the last 30 years regarding Daylight Saving -- for those unsure, a referendum is where the people get to vote on potential changes to the constitution. In ALL of those referendums, the majority of voters said "No, you can take your extra hour of daylight and stick it where the...um...sun don't shine". I don't know what people's reasons are. Personally, I loathe summer and daylight saving means that instead of it being 30 deg C when I get home at night it's still 35 or 40 deg. It also means that it's pitch black in the mornings and difficult to exercise etc before work. Daylight Saving seems to work well in Europe (the only other place I've lived that had it), but maybe that's because THERE it's not so hot that stepping outside immediately makes your skin feel like peeling paint.
Anyway, my main gripe is that we, the citizens of Perth, keep on voting NO to Daylight Saving. And the government decided to trial the stupid thing for 3 years anyway. We have ANOTHER referendum (can anyone say "waste of tax payers' time and money"?) in May, where undoubtedly this quaint and somewhat backward city will suffer dejavu all over again haha and vote NO. I just hope it stays away for good this time. Trying to go to sleep when it's over 100F is just not nice. I think I have the opposite of the usual style of Seasonal Affective Disorder. I need less sunlight. I should become a vampire, except having to get up close and personal with other people in order to feed, that's just not my scene. Sometimes I even find going to the grocery store is too interactive, and at least there you don't have to touch others LOL.
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I wrote a post last June about this very issue! I agree with you 100%! Here is the post. As I say in the post, I find the extra day light agitating more than anything, and I miss having the nights. I get physiological cues from the rise and set of the day/night, cues that I really feel my body needs to function properly, and with DST I don't get that. Incidentally, we changed our clocks three weeks ago. Furthermore, the older I get, the harder it is for me to adjust to this. I don't know why, but it's very, very bothersome...
WC, we're definitely soul sisters LOL. I agree with everything in your post, except because of the longitudinal positioning (ha!) of Perth, we still get to see SOME darkness. I think during March the sun was rising at 7am and setting at 8pm. But yeah, I am totally with you that us Queens of The Night need some nighttime. And I also feel like my natural body clock is even more out of whack during DST - I do not need any more reasons to feel like I need to stay in bed haha.
I can imagine surviving in those temperatures. My comfort level is around 25 c. Anything past that and my mood is seriously affected.
I hate DST also. Fortunately here in Arizona we have a time zone all our own because we are one of the very few states that never changes to DST. I can't imagine an extra hour of daylight during our HOT summers.
There is something called Summer SAD, reverse in a way of Winter SAD, that brings on anxiety, depression, etc. during summertime. If you want to vent about the heat or if you think you have this take a look at my Summer SAD community site: www.summersad.ning.com
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