A-Z Blogging Challenge - Daylight Saving

Ah yes, one of my pet hates comes to an end for this year in Eastern Australia. Why does it irritate me so much when we here in the more stubborn West have not given into it? Well, it does still inconvenience us. Any business we have with companies on the east coast - except for Queensland where they have also resisted instituting it - and that includes Canberra, our federal capital, and two of our major cities, has to be conducted in a time window of five hours instead of the six hours we have the rest of the year. Not being constrained by business hours, private individuals aren't quite so badly off but let's face it even six hours is much more limited than those on the east coast have to work with.

Daylight saving is an artificial construct that as far as I can see really doesn't work anywhere but particularly where we are located in the world. We've tried it here after much lobbying by business - three times in fact - and each time at the end of the trial it has been comprehensively voted against. You have to wonder whether that would be the same result if those on the east coast were also given a choice.

On a personal level I've loathed it every time we had a trial of it. I find it messes with my body clock and that it doesn't ever really adjust.

But it's not just my personal inconvenience. There's been research that shows our circadian clocks don't adjust to Daylight Saving Time. Other research here and here shows a slight increase in heart attacks and there's evidence that many people suffer extended sleep interference with its attendant and well documented effects.

Then there's this research which confirms what I have always suspected that Daylight Saving Time increases energy use and this one that suggests an increase in fatal road accidents.

So my loathing of Daylight Saving Time seems justified. Do you agree?