What’s not to love about some extra daylight in your life? Photo: File.
It’s the October long weekend and that can only mean one thing. I’m not talking about the extra day off work, that’s a given, nor the rugby league grand final (Brisbane v Melbourne, who cares) – it is, of course, the start of daylight saving.
It marks the “official” end to those dark, dreary, cold winter days, when we’d get up in the dark and leave work in the dark. There’s a reason people suffer from seasonal affective disorder, or the winter blues, and it’s those short, dark days.
Unsurprisingly, the symptoms often resolve during spring and summer when the days are longer, the sun shines more and daylight saving kicks in.
OK, so we’ll “lose” an hour of sleep on Sunday morning, but it’s a small price to pay for all of the glorious, long, hot, sweltering days … weeks … months ahead of us.
We’ll be able to do so much more exercise in the evenings because it’s still light – walking paths and bike tracks will be positively jumping with energetic folk.
(Hmmm, there’s an annoying, sensible voice in my head reminding me I hate exercise at any time of the day and did I really think a few extra hours of light would change the habits of a lifetime? Probably not.)
And just think how happy our doggy friends will be to spend more outdoor time with their favourite humans – win-win.
We’ll be able to duck to the pool for a leisurely swim after work, followed by a couple of cool bevvies in the outdoor beer garden.
It’s not just the cool bevvies that are enjoyable, but the fact we are outside soaking up much-needed vitamin D and we’re socialising, interacting with other humans, meeting one of our very basic needs.
Remember how claustrophobic those COVID-enforced hibernation periods were when we were confined to our homes and not allowed to interact with other folk?
Daylight saving draws us out of our winter hibernation and rekindles our desires to embrace life again. Socialising boosts our sense of connection to other people, which in turn boosts our moods and does great things for our mental health.
More daylight hours during the week will mean more tasks such as mowing can be done after work rather than wasting valuable weekend time on chores – that’s gotta be good, right?
(Annoyingly correct voice in head points out I live in a village where other people are paid to mow. Also reminds me I hate the heat and refuse to do any outside work while the sun is shining.)
No doubt there are some folk right now who, if they’ve read this far, are morphing into their Frankenstein facade and cranking up their computers to fire off a rant about how wrong/stupid I am and don’t I know the cows are fading, curtains are confused and their kids can’t get to sleep till 10 pm.
“I hate daylight saving, because we did not vote for it in the first place, see everything is run by the government, it does suck, plus the cost of living, it’s totally bullshit, oh well that’s life,” says one keyboard warrior, getting in ahead of the weekend change.
“Daylight saving is dumb.” Yup, lot of thought in that one.
Try living in the UK during summer where it doesn’t get dark until 10 pm – I didn’t hear too many people whingeing about their curtains or cows. And shock horror, they’ve discovered light-blocking window coverings keep the kiddies on their normal routine without a fuss.
Although I do feel sorry for national radio presenters who have to give the times for each capital city – they’ll need that extra hour to get through five time zones.
(Yes, I know we don’t get an extra hour in the day, that was sarcasm.)
At the end of the day – when we’ll have more daylight after Sunday – there are people who love it and people who hate it and never the twain shall meet.
And even though I don’t exercise, swim, walk a dog or mow after work, I’m firmly in the “I love daylight saving” camp – it just makes me feel sunnier. That’s gotta be a good thing.
Don’t forget to put your clocks forward an hour before you go to bed on Saturday night – if you have any old-fashioned clocks left in your house.
Original Article published by Jen White on Region Illawarra.
