March 2025

I accept as a challenge articles titled “10 things you didn’t know about…,” regardless of what the topic might be. How does any publication, website, or daytime “news” broadcast know me well enough to announce there are “10 things I didn’t know about (fill in the blank)”?

The most recent topic was daylight saving time.

The ninth one listed, I certainly knew. This article says, “Adults age 65 and older may struggle with the time change more than others.”

Tell me about it. It’s no longer about going around the house changing clocks. It’s about going to sleep. It’s about waking up when there’s something to do. It’s about being alert all day.

The article goes on with nine other points, some of which I really didn’t know. Maybe I need to moderate my indignation.

After 50 years of newspapering, I already knew it’s “daylight saving time,” with without capital letters and no “s” after the word “saving.” But our English language is fluid. The previously required hyphen between “daylight” and “saving” was dropped in recent years. At least, it was eliminated for those of us who follow The Associated Press Stylebook.

No surprise either is that Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe the time change, but I wasn’t aware they are the only states that don’t. I had missed that since 2006, all of Indiana has observed it after a complicated history across its two time zones.

American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands also remain on standard time year-round. Be advised if one of those is your summer vacation destination.

I also didn’t realize that more than two dozen states have been considering measures that would observe daylight saving time year-round. However, I did recall that during the energy crisis of the 1970s, the entire country went on daylight saving time. That began in January 1974 and ended in April 1975. If you had children riding the bus to school back then, you might recall those pre-dawn mornings at the bus stop.

Medical organizations cite evidence that these time changes each spring and fall aren’t good for physical and mental health. However, business interests tend to support it.

A lot of folks like what daylight saving does. We just don’t like the transitions. Fans of outdoor recreation enjoy the extra daylight in summer, and school children like later sunrises in winter.

While sleepy drivers do cause more accidents on the Monday after the time change each spring especially, statistics show that driving in daylight is safer overall than driving at night. Recreational interests benefit from more sunlight in the evening. However, those benefits are offset by negative effects on farmers, sleep habits, and productivity that’s lost as international schedules adjust to the inconsistent patchwork of time changes.

Perhaps the greatest benefit to society during daylight saving is a decrease in crime. Several studies have found a significant decrease in criminal activity after the spring time change, probably because more crimes are committed in darkness.

It seems the problem with eliminating these transitions is choosing whether to remain on standard time or daylight time year-round.

Regardless of which side of age 65 you may be, most of us can appreciate the “extra hour” of daylight after work or school. Again, the transitions are what’s problematic.

Daylight saving returns Sunday, and we must cope once again.

Gene Deason is editor emeritus of the Brownwood Bulletin. He began writing a column for the Bulletin in 1977, and “tgif” appears weekly. He may be contacted at tgifcolumn@yahoo.com.