Daylight Saving Time in the UK will go forward by an hour on Sunday. Since October of last year, I have been living my life alone. Daylight savings time is an unnecessary bane on our society and I believe that it is time to end it.
Changing the time is bad for our health. Humans and many other lifeforms on this planet are synchronised with the Earth's natural rotation and wake up when the day begins and sleep when night falls. Changing our social clock causes a difference between the time on our watches and the height of the sun in the sky. British double summer time was introduced during the second world war and made this worse. A group of experts in psychology, neurology and sleep cycles concluded that we should abandon Daylight Saving Time if we want to improve human health. Road traffic accidents in England and Wales fell by more than 10% when Daylight Saving Time was paused as an experiment in the 1960s.
My learning disability and sensitivity to change make it difficult for me to maintain consistent sleeping patterns, which is something I have struggled with for most of my life. Since I keep my clock on time, I have been able to sleep better and am less nervous, as I now know that the day is progressing as it should instead of being rewound or fast-forwarded. Basic math is enough to translate an appointment into my time zone.
I founded the anti daylight saving time movement because I am convinced that it is time to abolish it in every country that uses it. The US Senate voted earlier this month to make daylight savings time permanent. A majority of EU citizens agreed with the decision of the European parliament to scrap the hour change in 2019.
In the UK, my anti-DST activism has been met with mockery. Some see my efforts as a form of subtle heroism, and follow my example of freezing their clocks in one of the two time zones, while others consider them a thorn in society.
Why do the clocks change in the UK?
The original purpose of the practice was to encourage people to spend more time outdoors, but it has failed to live up to that. William Willett, one of the key figureheads of the spring forward/fall back routine in the United Kingdom, made the first justification after seeing too many closed windows.
flip-flops between time zones have failed to serve their intended purpose If a tradition or policy doesn't function as expected, we should either revise it to increase efficiency or remove it entirely.
It is my hope that this will be the last year in which people are forced to compromise their health for the sake of this tradition. It is my wish that this October will be the last time that fall back will happen. I will mark the time in my own way until then.
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