hobbituk (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} hobbituk) wrote,@ 2007-10-28 08:48:00 |
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Fiddling around with the clocks...
You know, I think my basal body clock time zone is definitely GMT. When the clocks go forward in the spring, I have an elaborate routine of setting everything forward at lunchtime on the Saturday. This way, I have lost the hour during the day and I go to bed at the normal time and get up at the normal time. If I don't do this my bodyclock goes on strike. It refuses to wake up in morning because, hello! too dark/early. It is sluggish and tired and won't obey my head. And this condition lasts for weeks until the body clock is dragged kicking and screaming into the new timezone. Then of course, I do enjoy the long summer nights.
In the autumn though, I never put the clocks back until I am up. Why gain the hour when you are not aware of it??? And as someone who never, ever, allows sufficient time to get everything done, there is real joy in being able to pluck an extra hour out of thin air at least one day a year.
I have heard all the arguments about the children coming home from school in the dark and everyone gaining an extra hour of leisure time and I say Pah! Pah!
Most schools kick the kids out at three. Three thirty at the very latest. In the winter when the clocks have gone back it gets light by eight and dark by four. That gives them 30 minutes to get home, and they go to school in the light. If we didn't put the clocks back it would stay lighter in the afternoon, but it wouldn't get light in the morning until nineish. So they are all going to school in the dark. In the rush hour when everyone is driving to work and there are jams everywhere. At least in the afternoons it is general traffic not rush hour!
As for the leisure time argument... ok, you get an extra hour daylight. For most people at work that means diddly squat because they don't finish until five anyway. If people aren't working, and have time for leisure, they do get an extra hour daylight, but at this time of the year it could be piddling down with rain and be freezing cold. So any leisure activity is more likely to take place indoors and doesn't need the daylight.
It's a no brainer for me. My body just doesn't wake up when it is dark. And even despite the joys of flexitime I really don't think work would like it if I rolled up at 10.00 am every day...
You know, I think my basal body clock time zone is definitely GMT. When the clocks go forward in the spring, I have an elaborate routine of setting everything forward at lunchtime on the Saturday. This way, I have lost the hour during the day and I go to bed at the normal time and get up at the normal time. If I don't do this my bodyclock goes on strike. It refuses to wake up in morning because, hello! too dark/early. It is sluggish and tired and won't obey my head. And this condition lasts for weeks until the body clock is dragged kicking and screaming into the new timezone. Then of course, I do enjoy the long summer nights.
In the autumn though, I never put the clocks back until I am up. Why gain the hour when you are not aware of it??? And as someone who never, ever, allows sufficient time to get everything done, there is real joy in being able to pluck an extra hour out of thin air at least one day a year.
I have heard all the arguments about the children coming home from school in the dark and everyone gaining an extra hour of leisure time and I say Pah! Pah!
Most schools kick the kids out at three. Three thirty at the very latest. In the winter when the clocks have gone back it gets light by eight and dark by four. That gives them 30 minutes to get home, and they go to school in the light. If we didn't put the clocks back it would stay lighter in the afternoon, but it wouldn't get light in the morning until nineish. So they are all going to school in the dark. In the rush hour when everyone is driving to work and there are jams everywhere. At least in the afternoons it is general traffic not rush hour!
As for the leisure time argument... ok, you get an extra hour daylight. For most people at work that means diddly squat because they don't finish until five anyway. If people aren't working, and have time for leisure, they do get an extra hour daylight, but at this time of the year it could be piddling down with rain and be freezing cold. So any leisure activity is more likely to take place indoors and doesn't need the daylight.
It's a no brainer for me. My body just doesn't wake up when it is dark. And even despite the joys of flexitime I really don't think work would like it if I rolled up at 10.00 am every day...