I've always thought that "daylight saving" was a bizarre term. Where is the daylight being saved? In a special piggy-bank? It also implies that (through some miracle) day length actually changes. It doesn't (though there seem to be a load of numpties on Twitter who think it does!).
As ever, there's also a large cohort of people on Twitter who think we should stick to "daylight saving" the whole year - essentially move to BST and away from GMT. They clearly do not live in Scotland. Personally, I would rather stick with GMT all year round. Daylength is so long up here in the summer (almost 18 hours in midsummer where I am; even longer if further north) that it doesn't really make any difference. Dawn is still way earlier than anyone tends to get up, and dusk is later than many people's bedtime.
For me, in many ways, it doesn't make any material difference. I work for myself. I am in control of when my day starts and ends. I tend to get up early, so now that we're back to GMT, I'm still up with the dawn, but that's 6.30 am not 7.30 at the moment. It also means that by 4.30 pm (dusk/dark) I'm happily done for the day and ready for a cosy evening.
I suppose the bigger issue is for those who work where lunch is considered "the middle of the day", and is (for some convention) round about 1-2pm. That works in BST - the sun being at its highest point then and it actually being the middle of the working day. But when we get past the clock change, it makes the work day less aligned with the solar day.
I don't know when the work day shifted away from being aligned with a solar day. When (and why?) did 1pm become lunchtime, rather than noon? If you know, tell me in the comments?
Comments
Post a Comment