Discussions

It’s that time of year again where we have people arguing for and again daylights savings. I feel like every year when this comes up, it’s always the same opinions being said by the same people. It always seems to be people arguing that “you’re just lazy and don’t wanna get up earlier” or “go to bed earlier, it’s not that hard” and really, this conversation gets tiring.  
 
I’m reality, I think it is time to just get rid of daylight savings. It’s not saving anything. Its fascinating that people are more willing to change something twice a year instead of make one big change to simply not switch the clocks.  
 
And can we please acknowledge that “going to bed earlier” is just not an option for some people? How about people who work until late and then have opening shifts the next day? Or people who work night shifts that then have to do an extra hour of work in the middle of the night? Or people with insomnia/sleeping problems? Why do people like that get erased every single time this is brought up?  
 
Frankly, as someone who does do the late night/early morning shifts and does have sleeping issues, it’s just not that easy.  
 
People seem to forget that Manitoba is a flat province. We aren’t gaining anything from changing the clocks. It’s not like there’s much blocking out that sunlight.  
 
So yeah, in my opinion, daylights savings should just be done with.

You know we are on Standard Daylight Time now? So you want to get rid of Daylight Saving Time? Are you ok with it getting dark in the summer at 8pm?

Yes, I do understand that. And I don’t care what time it gets dark in the summer. If it’s at the expense of me and other people being able to sleep and function properly the next day, I really don’t care what time it gets dark.  
 
Or better yet, put the clocks forward this time and just leave it. Why bother changing it in the fall?

Do not want it dark at 8 pm in summer.  
I would vote in favor of changing to daylight time now and then forever stating that way. I also do not have a problem with changing the clocks twice a year.  
 
Usually on the Sunday after the time change I just change my timetable by a half hour. That keeps the livestock from being confused by early/late feeding. Then on Monday I go by the new time and it's no big deal even for the livestock and pets.

why we need the time changes is because of our geographic position in the time zone. If we stayed standard time year round, in June the Sun would be rising around 4am. And in August setting at around 7pm. If we stayed Daylight year round, in December the Sun won't the rising till after 9am.  
 
Saskatchewan can get away with no changes because they are situated better geographically in the time zone, Saskatchewan could even go to Mountain time zone.  
 
In the summer here we want that extra hour of Sun to enjoy activities in the evening instead of in the morning. If you play outdoor sports during the Summer, if you have a business that relies on outdoor activities and other activities DST is important. Say you play softball, baseball, soccer in the evenings and it starts at 7pm. In August, the Sun is already setting when you start if we were to stay CST.  
 
Really a day or so after the change we all just continue enjoy the benefits that the time change gives. The time change gives us the sunlight when we better need it.

I'm fine with the sun rising at 9am in December. I'd still rather have more daylight after work, even in the middle of winter.

Sun rise at 9am, that would mean kids walking to school in the dark. Doesn't seem safe to me!!

Great explanation, thanks Trevor B!

I can see how this will play out all the ones complaining now that don’t like the time change. Will eventually end up complaining once they see what it’s really like. Seems these days don’t matter what it is people need to complain about something or they aren’t happy.

For me personally I would like day light savings time year round. I already go to work and get home in the dark over winter. If it was ahead an hour at least I could be outside for a short time in the sun. It’s always a battle each time change for people. I will always prefer having more daylight after work to go outside with the kids or do work around the yard.

Select a personal time zone and wake and sleep to that. If it means sometimes getting up an hour earlier than you need to, so what? Your body's sleep patterns won't change, just the schedule of your waking hours. To clarify, I mean to wake up at your usual wake up time in the winter all year long, and go to bed on the winter schedule as well. You personally won't be changing your sleep, just your day schedule. If you have a problem with "clopens", you'd have that anyway, no matter DST or not.

I've never seen the "fall back" part of the time change being a problem. Nobody seems to have an issue with an extra hour of sleep in November.  
 
The issue seems to be our "spring ahead" when we lose an hour and have to adjust the sleep schedule. It seems to me that we can do a few things to make this less jarring.  
 
1) Do the spring ahead time change at 6:00pm on Friday night. At 6:00 it becomes 7:00. This is late enough in the day to not affect businesses that keep bankers' hours, but early enough to not have people feel that they are losing an hour of their Friday night festivities. Doing it in the evening instead of the middle of the night means that we mentally reset our brains to the time change at the start of the weekend rather than halfway through. By Monday we'd be much more adjusted.  
 
2) Move Spring Break to the week after the time change. I think Ontario and some others already have it that week, so not unheard of. Gives kids a week to adjust, and means less traffic for commutes. The Winter Fair is purposely on Spring Break, so the Provincial Ex may need a couple years warning to make the change. Bonus, the Winter Fair would actually be held during Winter, not Spring.  
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The other option we could adopt across the continent would be an incremental multi-weekend switch. Do 15 minutes every weekend for four weeks. It's a small enough change that nobody's biological functions should be affected, and since our phones are our main timepieces now, it would be largely automatic.  
 
I lived in Saskatoon for two years. Staying on Standard time sucks when the sun comes up way before 5:00AM

If the people who are complaining about moving the clocks back and forth happen to stay up late an hour on a given night….are they messed up for a week as some say? Would this not be pretty much the same thing basically? Honest question as I’m not bothered by it in any way so I’m curious?

Great point. I wonder how many of these people that are so bothered by the time change, have ever gone to a movie that lasted longer than planned? Stayed by a campfire for an extra hr? Had friends over that stayed "too long"?Out of a yr. of 365 days, none of these people EVER changed their sleep time? and if they did, it took them a WEEK to recover??  
I wonder????  
Time change has never bothered me.

I never see anyone complaining about the longer evenings we get in the summer due to being on DST. The only time people complain is around the time changes, but otherwise take advantage of what the time change does.  
 
The Sun does not rise and set at the same time everywhere. For Mar. 6 in Winnipeg the Sun rises at 7:01 am and sets at 6:19 pm. In Brandon, Sun rises at 7:12 am and sets at 6:30 pm. So 11 minutes difference. Now Saskatoon was mentioned above. Sun rises at 7:41 am and sets at 6:55 pm. Regina, 7:31 am and 6:48 pm. Swift Current is 7:43 am and 7:01 pm. And right now we are on CST, so it's easier to see the difference. Even look at the difference between the Sunrise times between Regina and Saskatoon, 10 min difference. Between Winnipeg and Saskatoon is 40 min right there. And if I add in Dryden, 6:43 am and 6:02 pm.  
 
On the Summer Solstice (June 21), in Brandon the Sun rises at 5:31 am DST and sets at 9:52 pm DST. If we were to stay CST, that would be 4:31 am and 8:52 pm. In Swift Current 5:00 am CST and 9:25 pm CST.  
 
So we really can't compare Manitoba and Saskatchewan in terms of time. Between Winnipeg and Swift Current there is a 42 min difference. Between Dryden and Swift Current is an hour difference. I believe the divide between CST and EST is between Dryden and Thunder Bay.  
 
Getting my times from timeanddate.com

I don't think I have the mental strength to re-program the VCR again.  

I don’t love the time change either but love the light later in the evening. Sure you get tired for a week but your body adjusts. It’s just an hour. It’s not like shift work switching from day to night. I actually find the standard time change worse because it gets dark so early.  
 
We’ve been doing it all my 50 years of life………no issue other than hating my alarm clock that first morning and getting an extra large coffee.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/daylight-time-us-1.6385895  
 
US Senate passed bill to change to permanent Daylight Savings Time

And then the same people will be whining that they can’t make best use of daylight hours anymore and they’ll want to change back to the current system.