The Time Change and Those on the Spectrum

[Pats]

When setting the clock back, if your regular bedtime is 11pm, you would set it back to 10pm before turning in--- voila! an extra hour of sleep.
When setting it forward, you are actually sleeping from your normal bed time 'til
the time you would normally get up.
At that point, you set it an hour forward.
What actually happens, in that instance,
is that your sleep period was normal, but your waking hours have been shortened by one hour.
I know, I know, cheap trick, buuuuttt...
If you value your sleep that much...

I can grasp the first - but the second - is it that you're trying to trick your brain? I have a hard time trying to grasp the concept of gaining or losing and hour sleep and every single year on this day my sister and I always get into a conversation going back and forth trying to explain what's happening until we are both so confused we give up. I don't know why I have such a hard with it mentally trying to figure it out.

 

[Pats]

I do that every time daylight savings is upon us. Not in an attempt to compensate, but rather to adjust all the clocks I must change while I'm not yet so disoriented. Over the years I've learned not to do it after the fact, when I'm more likely to make mistakes or simply forget to change them altogether.

But for me it does nothing. I still wake up with that bewildered feeling...even now having gained an hour.

But then yeah...at least it's a chore I don't have to give any thought to the next morning. Except my car clock. I can't recall if it automatically changes or not. Guess I'll find out when I go out today.

LOL...that's the worst when you drive around the next day and forget you're an hour behind. Where my watch is behind and my car is ahead.

And which one is the correct time?????
In Page, Az we had a tour scheduled and was told not to go by the time on our phone which changes automatically because Page was on a time zone line. We got there early and decided to walk around a bit. I'd look at my phone and think, okay we have plenty of time, then look at it again and think, shoot we gotta hurry back. Because the clocks on our phone kept changing back and forth. It was so confusing we finally just went back to the place and just waited.

 

[Judge]

And which one is the correct time?????

My watch. A clock I reset before I went to bed.

 

[sidd851]

I can grasp the first - but the second - is it that you're trying to trick your brain? I have a hard time trying to grasp the concept of gaining or losing and hour sleep and every single year on this day my sister and I always get into a conversation going back and forth trying to explain what's happening until we are both so confused we give up. I don't know why I have such a hard with it mentally trying to figure it out.

In the second instance, you aren't really
gaining an hour of sleep--- you're just not
losing an hour.
You are, however, shortening your waking period the next day--- If you get up at 9am, it's actually already 10am.
Shortening your waking hours puts the time that you got up 1 hour closer to the next time you go to sleep--- that's the real advantage there--- you're not quite so tired at your next bedtime.
Don't feel badly, there is an amazing number of people for whom this doesn't make sense. I can still hear my mom explaining.
And explaining and explaining and expl...

 

[sidd851]

I've also heard this being referred to
as "the time change dance".

 

[Nervous Rex]

My watch. A clock I reset before I went to bed.

Reminds me of a quote I heard: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure.

 

[OkRad]

I hate it. Messes up a lot of stuff. But oh dear God, how I long for the days when that was my most pressing issue of the day.

 

[Judge]

Reminds me of a quote I heard: A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two is never sure.

A historical tidbit. There's a rather famous photograph of Russian soldiers who took the Reichstag building in the Battle of Berlin. But the original photo had to be retaken because the soldier in the foreground was wearing multiple watches at the time. Spoils of war not suitable for propaganda purposes. Even though it was totally permissible at the time.

 

[Streetwise]

I do that every time daylight savings is upon us. Not in an attempt to compensate, but rather to adjust all the clocks I must change while I'm not yet so disoriented. Over the years I've learned not to do it after the fact, when I'm more likely to make mistakes or simply forget to change them altogether.

But for me it does nothing. I still wake up with that bewildered feeling...even now having gained an hour.

But then yeah...at least it's a chore I don't have to give any thought to the next morning. Except my car clock. I can't recall if it automatically changes or not. Guess I'll find out when I go out today.

LOL...that's the worst when you drive around the next day and forget you're an hour behind. Where my watch is behind and my car is ahead.

The most bizarre is when you go to church an hour late and everybody is singing and you wonder why it is not silent

 

[Fino]

The fact that it happens in the middle of the night means I wouldn't realize it happened if no one mentioned it, which, of course, is impossible!

 

[clg114]

My own DST proposal would be that, instead of changing the clocks at 2am, we change at 1pm on a Monday or Friday.

Here's how it would work for those of us working 8 - 5 jobs:

When the clocks move forward, you go to lunch at 12. At 1, you return from lunch, set your clock forward to 2. You work until 5 and go home.

When the clocks move backward, you go to lunch at 12. At 1, you set your clock back to 12 and stay out at your nice lunch for an extra hour. You go back to work at 1, work until 5 and go home.

This is the only type of DST I would personally support.

This would be great, unless you are a employer.

 

[clg114]

I do that every time daylight savings is upon us. Not in an attempt to compensate, but rather to adjust all the clocks I must change while I'm not yet so disoriented. Over the years I've learned not to do it after the fact, when I'm more likely to make mistakes or simply forget to change them altogether.

But for me it does nothing. I still wake up with that bewildered feeling...even now having gained an hour.

But then yeah...at least it's a chore I don't have to give any thought to the next morning. Except my car clock. I can't recall if it automatically changes or not. Guess I'll find out when I go out today.

LOL...that's the worst when you drive around the next day and forget you're an hour behind. Where my watch is behind and my car is ahead.

No, the worst is when you go all day Thursday thinking it is Friday.

 

[clg114]

While looking for something amusing to post about my disdain for the time change, I came across something about it affecting those with autism. I was intrigued at that, because it has been a significant issue for me my entire life. Just about the time I start to adjust, the time changes again and I have to start all over.

So, do you have difficulties with the time change? Is it because of the disrupted sleep pattern, the change to routine in relationship to what your mind and body say, is it merely because you hate change? Some areas do not follow Daylight Savings Time, so does that have any affect?

The time change does not bother me at all, in fact I like it. It is nice having that extra hour to go golfing or riding or what ever my wife tells me to do. I like when it changes back so our grandkids do not have to go to school in the dark.

 

[stringer]

The time change does not bother me at all, in fact I like it. It is nice having that extra hour to go golfing or riding or what ever my wife tells me to do. I like when it changes back so our grandkids do not have to go to school in the dark.

I love the time change. The extra hour in bed in when it changes in the autumn, and the start of the early nights, with all the accompanying feeling that winter and the holiday season is on the way. True, the change back in the spring is not so great, but a price worth paying for the autumn enjoyment.

 

[oregano]

My main issue is all my clocks, I must have a dozen of them in various places with their own specific reasons for being where they are. Then I have to change all of them at once, except the UTC clock on my ham radio setup (UTC is a universal time standard and does not change), and it takes me maybe an hour. It's annoying.

Daylight Savings Time was actually thought up by Ben Franklin, during a trip to France he observed the sun setting so early in Paris that the locals used a lot of candles. Keep in mind that candles back then had to have the burnt portion of their wicks constantly snipped off or else the wax would run off as waste and not burn, and also there were no matches and all candles had to be lit via the fire in the house's central hearth. Ben thought that if Parisians simply reset their clocks in spring so that there was more daylight at later hours, they would save lots of livre (money) on candles. Before the King of France could seriously consider it, he lost his head after his subjects got fed up with his misrule.

The idea didn't pop up again until World War 2 when the US was under the very real threat of an Axis invasion. FDR realized that more hours of daylight in the evening would deprive German and Japanese bombers of the advantage of darkness to use for bombing raids, both in that the US army would be unable to see them and that they could use city lights to guide them. It was called "War Time" and was intended to last only for the duration of the war. After the war various regional govts saw the advantage in DST, creating a crazy quilt of time standards that was remedied only in 1966 with federal law.

Fun fact: in 1974 and 1975 Gerald Ford apparently decreed that DST be year round as an emergency measure to deal with the energy crisis. This affected me in the following fashion: my mom was pregnant with me through most of 1974 and her due date was on a certain day in November. However, I was born at 11:49 pm the day before. Usually, November would be on standard time, but in 1974 it was on DST due to Ford's decree. So, under normal circumstances, I would have been born at 12:49 am the following day, my original due date. (This of course doesn't address why my mom would be so stupid as to get pregnant during the oil embargo and attendant economic collapse. This was a sore point between us for ages. My mom said she just wanted a little baby to care for. Well, what happens when the baby grows up, and has to live in a post-oil, post-apocalyptic hellworld? "Everything works out eventually", she said. She was never too smart.)

 

[Buzzerfly]

I just use the old time secretly until it comes back around.

 

[megacomic]

No I try not to be so delicate. The time change is arbitrary but it's often the least of my worries.

 

[Janet]

I believe almost EVERYBODY hates DST, not just people on the spectrum. The woman I babysit for was just saying last night how much she hates it. I think they should just make the whole year back and hour (or do I mean forward an hour?) so that it stays light out later all the time.

 

[Fino]

California is voting today on a proposition related to DST!

"A YES Vote Means: The Legislature, with a two-thirds vote, could change daylight saving time if the change is allowed by the federal government. Absent any legislative change, California would maintain its current daylight saving time period (early March to early November)."

 

[Judge]

California is voting today on a proposition related to DST!

"A YES Vote Means: The Legislature, with a two-thirds vote, could change daylight saving time if the change is allowed by the federal government. Absent any legislative change, California would maintain its current daylight saving time period (early March to early November)."

That's just it. The fed won't allow it. Much like Nevada and Wyoming. Or any other state in the union.