The selling point of an extra hour of sleep is, unfortunately, a myth.I’m not talking about young people who can sleep on demand, but your average, everyday working body who adheres to a schedule set by the man.Like many Americans I probably don’t get enough sleep.Long years of habit are hard to break, and besides, I still have to commute into New York City.Not every day, but every couple of weeks.Still, my sleep-deprived brain knows that means awaking early on those days and since getting up extra-early is hard, why not maintain the status quo ante?Habitual early risers don’t really benefit from setting the clocks back.You see, you’re never given something without it being taken away again elsewhere.
Humans can’t seem to help themselves from messing with nature.There’s always something to do on the farm, and other creatures don’t keep clocks.Interestingly, standardized time (instead of the more natural local time) only came into being with the railroad.Trains were scarce and to make sure those down the line didn’t miss one, time had to be synchronized.Even earlier, the process of navigating the oceans required knowing what time it was back home—local time could be determined by the sun—to determine one’s longitude. With railways, however, the nine-to-five could become the accepted norm so that business could be conducted and time could be divided into profitable and domestic.And everyone knows which one is more lucrative.
No doubt some will wake this morning well rested.Others will have stayed up later, knowing they’d have an extra hour this morning.For the rest of us, biology moves us along the same trajectory it’d been keeping ever since March.Daylight Saving Time could be instituted all year, you know.When we set the clocks back in March we could just keep them there.The slow, steady rhythms of time would adjust.Yes, the gods of Greenwich would be annoyed, but mean time could mean time that is useable.The modern commuter lives by the clock.Work depended on that train or bus or camel.You don’t want to miss it.And if you think camels are an odd addition to the list, it could be that the present writer isn’t getting enough sleep.No matter what longitude, or mass transit schedule, nothing beats a good night’s sleep. And changing clocks doesn’t help.
