Until President George W. Bush decided to change the Daylight Savings time, I had blissfully been going about my days assuming that the biannual dance an hour ahead and an hour back was a foregone conclusion. In truth, Daylight Savings time is a hotly debated phenomena, as most Arizonans are aware, and has becoming increasingly more so as studies show the various effects of our daylight two-step.

The most common reason for instituting Daylight Savings is the supposed savings of daylight in the early mornings which is supposed to support agriculture (those farmers get up early) and to save electrical bills on lighting at night. The truth, it seems, is that Daylight Savings really doesn’t do anything for us. The real beneficiaries are recreational businesses and companies; Big Golf, as a recent article in GOOD wryly commented, are controlling our timepieces. There are other economic factors, airlines, busing, and trains, for instance, whose schedules are disrupted twice a year but can’t out-lobby the companies that benefit from savings time to undo the changes.

Daylight Savings has documented effects on us as well, throwing our biological clocks into disarray twice a year. In addition, during the winter months it’s shown that the “Fall Back” of the change can actually initiate or worsen Seasonal Affective Disorder in people. I know that I always feel a little depressed when I’m both arriving and leaving work in the dark (although the extra hour of sleep is nice... initially). We also are likely to suffer some sleep deprivation as our circadian rhythms adjust to the new sunlight cycle, which can increase grogginess, heart attacks, and depression and lowers productivity at work.

There is a group of activists that believe that Daylight Savings time should be permanent, always sticking with one calendar and allowing our bodies to adjust naturally, as the changing of the seasons lengthens and shortens days without a dramatic shift twice a year. Since evenings are by far the most active leisure times for families, it doesn’t make sense for us to constantly be short-changing ourselves at night.

Why not allow Daylight Savings to continue unabated into the winter season, and give ourselves some of that badly needed sunlight when we can enjoy it after work? I already spend at least two months out of my year pulling myself out of bed in the morning and having to turn on the lights, scraping ice off my car with the streetlights still on. I would appreciate the opportunity to come home and enjoy just another 30 minutes to an hour of sunlight before everything gets dark and sleepy once again. I imagine it might help more people stave of SAD, and might still give those recreational companies the revenue boost they enjoy.