Welcome back, CST

Okay, I get that I'm one of the few out there who prefers standard time to the so-called Daylight Saving. (Cue the alleged quote from a Native American chief about how "only the government can think they can make a blanket longer by cutting a foot off one end and sewing it to the other end")

But I do. It's a very simple psychological thing: driving to work in the dark, where it feels like the middle of the night, is depressing to me, but driving in as the sun is starting to come up is okay. And, yeah, yeah, this is only an issue for a few weeks at the start and end (though it's more of an issue now, since DST got expanded a couple years ago).

I don't mind driving home in the dark. That seems proper and right. But driving to work in the dark feels like I'm being punished for something, and I don't like it. (I try to be in the office, nearly every day of the week, by 7 am. When you have an 8 and and a 9 am class, that little extra time is helpful, even if they're classes you've taught for years and probably really don't need heavy preparation for.)

I've seen a few news stories suggesting that that "extra" hour of sleep (which is really just the hour stolen from us in March, I would argue) has tremendous benefits - people are more productive, they have (very short term, I would guess) improved heart health, they make better decisions.

Hm. You would think there would be some kind of a push to encourage people to get enough sleep all the time. Currently, in Oklahoma, we have some ads emphasizing high vegetable intake and getting your daily exercise (A good idea to promote, I suppose, but (a) I already know I'm supposed to do that stuff and (b) those ads use a sportscaster-style of voice over that I just find really annoying and patronizing). Why not encourage people to get sleep as well?

(I try very hard to get at least 7 hours of sleep a night. Ideally, I'd like more, and also, some nights my sleep is broken if there's noise in the neighborhood or if some rogue ache or pain wakes me up. (I've been awakened by muscle cramps, migraines, something I ate announcing that my stomach doesn't like having eaten it...)

But maybe sleep isn't as "sexy" as exercise or healthful diet. Or maybe people are afraid that sleep will cause them to miss out on something (Supposedly the next iteration of "yolo" is "fomo" or "fear of missing out." I will observe that there are precious few things I've seen on television - and few on the web - that I would really have been materially hurt by missing out on). Or, I don't know. I will admit I would probably be as annoyed by a sleep PSA as I am by the ones where the guys are breathlessly talking about how the man they are observing (apparently without his knowledge) has taken a banana as a snack rather than the donuts in the break room.

Also, I suppose, to encourage people to get enough sleep might require certain changes in our culture and how people work for a living....like no more shifting people's schedules on a regular basis.