聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 I never really thought much about Daylight Saving Time prior to going to school in Lethbridge. I鈥檓 from Saskatchewan, we don鈥檛 have to change our clocks and I like it that way. Many people outside of our province, however, got to adjust clocks back to their regular time zone on Nov. 5.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 While going to school I met a friend who was from Alberta, but didn鈥檛 like the premise of it. Her reasoning, 鈥淚f you take a blanket and cut the top third off, then sew it onto the bottom, it鈥檚 the same length; it just looks a little different.鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 And that鈥檚 exactly it, you鈥檙e not magically creating more time, you鈥檙e simply moving your clock back an hour so it appears lighter out later during the summer 鈥� even though they鈥檝e just played with their clocks a little bit.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 There鈥檚 a Corner Gas episode titled 鈥淣o Time Like the Presents,鈥� season 5, episode 15, where Hank resets his watch to be on Daylight Saving Time in Saskatchewan鈥� and confusion ensues as he just keeps resetting his watch ending up an entire day ahead of everyone else.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Time is relative. We鈥檝e decided as a global community to accept time zones and abide by them. When we decided we didn鈥檛 really like the time zones we were in, people decided to create Daylight Saving Time.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 It鈥檚 true, during the summer everyone enjoys sunlight later in the day and Daylight Saving Time does allow people to have this. However, when it comes to a rural area based on agriculture those with cattle are governed by the cattle鈥檚 clocks. Livestock is accustomed to being milked or fed at certain times.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 For most people, however, they tend to not like getting up early, so tricking you into thinking you are getting up at a normal time by moving the clock back is helpful in waking up. Then with a little extra daylight, people are able to do more throughout the day because they鈥檙e utilizing that hour.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 And for many businesses that flip flop of the hour results in more money in their pockets as people are out for longer in the daylight and are not sleeping through that hour.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Studies have actually found that heart attack risk increases by 25 percent when the clocks move ahead, while the researchers discovered that the risk drops by 21 percent when the clocks fall back.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Apparently our circadian clocks (our biological clock, which relates to a solar day) never completely adjusts to the shift in daylight hours when it comes to springing forward or falling back.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Originally Daylight Saving was suggested as a way to save money. More light in the evening saves on electricity bills and was focused to boost industrial production during the First World War鈥� the problem today, however, is that studies have shown that lighting isn鈥檛 the driving force or energy use anymore 鈥揾eat and air conditioning drive the majority of the bill these days, so you鈥檙e not really saving anything; while you鈥檙e actually spending more on activities to do in the 鈥渆xtra鈥� light of the day.
