Editorial: Why Are We Still Changing Clocks Twice A Year?

It's that time again.

Time to 'Spring Ahead" to Daylight Saving Time by 2 a.m. on Sunday. The official name is "Saving" time, by the way, even though people often call it "Savings" time

We all get to lose an hour of sleep this weekend. We do it because...well, because ''We've always done it that way."

I don't think that's a good enough reason.

Problems With The Time Changes

The concept of changing the clocks twice a year has become increasingly controversial in recent years, both in Wyoming and across the country.

It goes beyond merely being an inconvenience. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in an article called "7Things To Know About Daylight Saving Time"  quotes sleep expert Adam Spira as saying the spring time change in particular is associated with an increase in strokes and heart attacks.

The article goes on to say "The change is also associated with a heightened risk of mood disturbances and hospital admissions, as well as elevated production of inflammatory markers in response to stress. The potential for car crashes also spikes just after the spring forward, Spira says; a 2020 study found that the switch raises the risk of fatal traffic accidents by 6%."

You typically hear the following arguments in favor of changing the clocks.

"It saves energy." Maybe this was true in say, 1970. In the age of computers and air conditioning it's no longer valid. Numerous studies show that in the modern world virtually no energy is saved/

''It helps farmers." I always get a chuckle out of this, because the people saying it are usually city dwellers and they never spell out the mysterious process through which changing the clocks supposedly helps agriculture. Look, my grandparents were ranchers in South Dakota. They worked when they needed to work. They didn't punch a clock and their cows didn't either.

''Kids will be going to school in the dark." So you tweak the school schedules to avoid this. Easy fix.

The next argument typically between folks who want to got to year round Daylight Saving Time vs. Year Round Standard time.

Personally, I don't really care. Make a choice and stick with it.. Let's just stop disrupting our schedules twice a year for no valid reason other than ''We've always done it this way."