If you had said to me last week, “You’re going to lose an hour of sleep on Sunday,” I would have said to you, “No big deal. I lose an hour of sleep to TikTok all the time.” Because theoretically, that’s how I feel. An hour, conceptually, is very little, and I have lost many hours to videos of dogs eating cheese.
In reality, however, the hour lost in the transition to daylight saving time has felt catastrophic for me and my family. I think it’s because I have a 4-year-old.
Four-year-olds are not typically known for their willingness to listen to an explanation of the way things are and act rationally in response. I cannot say, “Hey buddy, for some reason no one really seems to understand, twice a year we change our clocks, and last night we moved our clocks forward, so even though it feels like 7:00, it’s actually 8:00, and I need you to buy into this complete lunacy and go to sleep right now.”
He won’t respond to that.
Nor will he respond to, “Hey buddy, I know yesterday it was 6 a.m. at this time but now it’s 7 a.m. so I need you to get on board and get out of bed.”
Even my oldest child, who is 11 and is known for her willingness to accept things the way they are and act rationally, said Monday morning, “It feels way too early.” She was right. When my alarm went off that morning I was physically not ready to start my day, nor had I been ready to go to sleep at a reasonable hour the night before.
My group texts with fellow moms the past few days have bemoaned the exhaustion and parenting challenges caused by the time change.
We’re all suffering, it seems, and for no good reason.
There was a moment last year when we saw a light at the end of this Kafkian tunnel. The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent.
But then the bill stalled in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, seemingly because members of Congress could not decide if they should make standard time (fall back) or daylight saving time (spring forward) permanent.
Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but is it not the responsibility of our lawmakers to decide things and then turn those decisions into law? Is that not why we elect them? To make choices that will better our nation? Anything would be better than the twice-yearly time whiplash, and ending it feels like it would be a political win for all involved.
As a people-pleaser, I understand not wanting to disappoint constituents. But I believe the decision could be as simple as consulting this CBS News poll, which states more Americans prefer daylight saving time. But if they are afraid of upsetting the minority, the standard-time lovers, they could split the difference and make one final change in the fall and set clocks back half an hour.
But I have little faith the bill will actually make it out of the Capitol Hill labyrinth, thanks to dark lobbying organizations like Big Misery and Big Confusion. We might have to take matters into our own hands and stage a revolt.
I’ve seen two different versions of “Les Miserables” on screen and read half the book, so I’m well aware that a populist uprising is no easy feat. But the numbers are on our side. That same CBS News poll found that eight in 10 Americans want to abolish clock changes. The other two, I have to assume, did not understand the question.
Here’s what I propose — when the first Sunday in November arrives, we simply don’t change our clocks. When our phones, laptops and other devices automatically change from 12:59 to 2 a.m., we change them back to 1 a.m.
Sure, there will be some chaos as word spreads that the people have rejected the elitist time change system. Appointments will be missed. TV schedules will be a mess, but that’s okay because we all stream everything now anyway. We’ll have to write late notes for our kids for a while. All great movements take time and friction to take off. Like folksy songs with lots of clapping, and Crocs.
But word will spread and people will choose to adopt this new, better way.
When a coworker schedules a meeting for 1 p.m., we will tell them we will be there at 1 p.m. DST. When they ask for clarification, we will explain that we have chosen to live our lives free of clock changes. “We can do that?” they will ask, eyes wide. “Yes,” we will tell them. “For we are the masters of our own fate.”