To ask if we can stop dicking about with the clocks?

[ThirdElephant]

Just that, really. I'm up at 4:30 for the second day in a row because of this clock nonsense. Changing bedtime is not adjusting wake-up time, just resulting in a tired infant. Can we all just leave the clocks where they are from now on?

The clocks going back is my favourite time of the year! I actually feel rested for about a week until I get used to it.

I am old enough to remember the experiment of keeping on BST all the year round, and quite honestly, it has made no impression on me whatever.

@risefromyourgrave

I’m sure they had a trial where they didn’t change them one year. My mum has said about it, she said it was horrible.

It was 3 years. I remember it. All of us schoolchildren were encouraged to wear reflective hi-viz armbands and to stick reflective stickers on our schoolbags, so we could be seen while walking to school in the morning.

Here's an article from BBC News in 2010 on the subject.

I remember it..and the RTA (adult pedestrian hit by car, VSI but fortunately non fatal) that happened one morning right in front of us whilst we were waiting for the schools bus.

Being v rural we had about a one hour bus ride to/from school, so we ended up either going to school in the dark, which happened during the trial, or coming home in the dark, when the trial stopped……?

that aside the trial didn’t leave much of an impression on me either..

@HalloHello

Iceland manage their very few daylight hours just fine. Why can't we manage a dark morning? We would all get used to it after a few days and then wouldn't really notice it in the following years I don't think!

How do you know? People cope because they have to, of course, but a lot of people find the winter very hard.

We have similar debates in Iceland and public health campaigns because we're on GMT which is wrong for the position of the sun. We don't have to deal with clocks changing, but we do have 'unnaturally' dark mornings for longer than we would need to because the sun reaches its high point at 1 pm rather than noon. Sleep experts say that this is not good for us. It is healthier to get up in the light when possible.

I never understand why people have such a fuss over this. It's literally one hour!

Apparently we didn't change the clocks one year and there were kids walking to school at 8am in darkness.

@sleepinglionsroar we don't get paid for it.

Decades ago we did try not changing them, but the number of children getting run over on their their route to school went up a lot. I think there were other reasons to do with consumption of electricity perhaps, but it was changed back.

As a gardener YABU,

But I am happy for us to stay on winter time permanently if the change is what irritates you.

We were in the South East so God knows what it must have been like for people further north or in Scotland.

According to my mum, it was awful. And the statistics agree with her as more people were killed or injured in Scotland over that period of time.

I suffer from seasonal affective disorder and the darkness in winter really gets me down. Clocks going back definitely makes matters worse. I suspect lots of people have the same problem.

@OhPatti

I suffer from seasonal affective disorder and the darkness in winter really gets me down. Clocks going back definitely makes matters worse. I suspect lots of people have the same problem.

But is the issue the clocks changing or the number of daylight hours getting shorter? And the weather changing?

It's not really linked to the weather, for me at least, though I'm not keen on cold weather. It's very much about the darkness for me. I realise the nights would still draw in if the clocks didn't go back, but the jump to darkness a whole hour earlier definitely doesn't help my SAD. Can't really speak for other sufferers.

@Lockdownbear I think it'll be both. But the early nightfall does make me grumpier than waking up when it's stills dark....

@OhPatti

I suffer from seasonal affective disorder and the darkness in winter really gets me down. Clocks going back definitely makes matters worse. I suspect lots of people have the same problem.

Yes! Wasn’t aware this was a thing. I get so down and find it so difficult to wake up. It’s like having no life if you are at work all day too.

I’d just got my twins into a loose routine (3 months old), and now they want to go to bed at 5 and are up by 4.30 with regular wakings! It’s hell. I hate clock changes.

@HunterHearstHelmsley

The clocks going back is my favourite time of the year! I actually feel rested for about a week until I get used to it.

Same here, feels like I have an hours lay in for a few days.

Also the kids are happy to go to bed an hour earlier.

@grey12

Please someone explain to me: does it REALLY make that much of a difference to farmers? it doesn't change the daylight hours! I honestly don't understand it

Sooooooo.... no one actually knows.....?

I would quite happily pay more tax to fund a scheme where people who say "I like the extra hour in bed" get rudely awoken for the first two weeks post-clock change.

I'm not at all bitter my 2yo woke the entire house at 4am

I would quite happily pay more tax to fund a scheme where people who say "I like the extra hour in bed" get rudely awoken for the first two weeks post-clock change.

A large number have already parented their own children through that stage. They can see past it.

@SpangoDweller

🙋🏻‍♀️

I do feel for Scotland though, where the mornings are far too dark in winter

They can have their own time zone if they want

A large number have already parented their own children through that stage. They can see past it

What a smug remark.

I think you mean their children are already past that stage, so they don't care.

They can have their own time zone if they want

It’s not just Scotland, unless you’re proposing separate time zones for the North of England too.

@jontyl

Wouldn't it be better to move Scotland school hours to 9.30 start in the winter.

then you just move the problem to the afternoon, it would be dark around 3pm instead of 4pm

@Santastuckincustoms

I would quite happily pay more tax to fund a scheme where people who say "I like the extra hour in bed" get rudely awoken for the first two weeks post-clock change.

I'm not at all bitter my 2yo woke the entire house at 4am

Meh, my 3 year old got me up at 5:53 but will be knackered by bedtime so no pissing about.

Long, dark, cosy, peaceful evening ahead.

@RobinPenguins

They can have their own time zone if they want

It’s not just Scotland, unless you’re proposing separate time zones for the North of England too.

and indeed the west and east - there is quite a difference between eg Devon and Kent