Tired of Being Tired?

by Andrew Houser, UNT Student

Tired of Being Tired? The “New” Daylight Savings Time (DST) May be the Cause.

You may have noticed that daylight savings came earlier this year. No, this does not mean the calendar has shifted or somehow you lost track of time. It means that we get to enjoy the evening sun for more days out of the year.

If you did not know, former President Ronald Reagan moved the start date forward to the first Sunday in April from the last Sunday in April. At that time he did not change the end date, leaving it as the last Sunday in October. Ronald Reagan proposed that adding the whole month of April would save the nation around 300,000 barrels of oil per year. If this is true, then I say we have DST all year round. I personally enjoy having a later sunset.

The new start and stop dates were set in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The government believes that electricity used for lighting our homes is directly connected to when we go to bed and when we get up. This makes sense, considering that when we go to bed we turn off the lights, computers, and the TV. A study shows that DST cuts down on our electricity usage by one percent each day.

Not only does the extra hour of sunlight save energy, but the additional sunlight is credited with increasing sales and profit in many industries. For example, the golf industry is estimated to sell an extra US$200 million in equipment and green fees. Barbecue manufacturers plan to make an additional US$100 million in grill and charcoal briquette sales. The travel industry, from motels to hotels and attractions, will also benefit from this extra month of DST. In the past, convenience stores have brought in more money due to the month extension. For instance, in 1986, sales at 7-11 stores increased by $30 million to $50 million.

Everyone is in favor of increasing safety for women, right? Women in urban areas feel safer during DST when they need to make a quick shopping trip on the way home from work. This being known, larger cities are more apt to adopt this change than rural areas.

So, instead of being tired of being tired; go golfing, barbeque more, travel, buy a Slurpee® at 7-Eleven, and expect more women to be on shopping sprees.