Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“Every year, twice a year, Americans’ bodies spend days or weeks adjusting to a sudden one-hour real (as opposed to clock-designated) change in when we go to bed and when we get up. That’s both annoying and costly. Less annoying in the age of ‘everything connected to the Internet’ than it was back in the days when every clock in the house had to be manually adjusted, but still annoying …. As for the practice being ‘costly,’ some economic analyses do posit costs to businesses — higher utility bills, etc. — from the changes, but the most obvious cost is counted in human life. ‘Springing forward’ results, according to a 2016 study, in an average of 30 extra deaths in car accidents each year — exactly the outcome one might expect from millions of tired drivers with discombobulated circadian rhythms getting behind the wheel when it SHOULD be daylight but is instead still dark.” (12/14/24)