While we do lose an hours sleep, having more daylight at the end of the day, indicates that winter is ending soon and spring is around the corner. Always a good thing.
The idea of Daylight Saving Time (DST) has been around for a long time but was suggested in 1895 by New Zealander George Vernon Hudson. It was formally enacted at different times and years by various countries throughout the world. Canada formally adopted it during the First World War.
It is not without controversy however. It was been documented to have effects on health, the economy and the number suicides and car accidents. According to the LA Times:
- The number of serious heart attacks jumps 6% to 10% on the first three workdays after the start of daylight saving time, according to a 2008 Swedish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
- Men are more likely to commit suicide during the first few weeks of daylight saving time than they are during the rest of the year, according to a 2008 Australian study in the journal Sleep and Biological Rhythm
-The number of traffic accidents in the U.S. spikes on the Monday after the clocks move forward, researchers reported in the journal Sleep Medicine in 2001.
- Canadian researchers have pegged the increase there at 8%, according to a 1996 study in the New England Journal. In Sweden, it jumps by 11%, according to a 2000 study in the journal Accident Analysis & Prevention.
- Economists have found that sleep-deprived traders typically produce “large negative returns on financial-market indices” in the week following the shift to daylight saving time, according to a 2000 paper in the American Economic Review.
But today is a sunny day and temperatures are supposed to hit 6 or 7 degrees Celsius – downright balmy for Newfoundland at this time of year.
I’ll think I’ll put the keyboard away and get out and enjoy the day. I might even wash the car – seeing as we can’t do it during the summer because of perennial water bans.
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