Time Change: Yes or No?

I read an editorial this morning in the Chicago Tribune arguing against the semi-annual time change we have in this country. The U.S. Senate has passed a bill declaring the we have daylight savings time all year round. The arguments, put forth in the editorial, for year-round daylight savings time are that we have light longer into the evening, making it safer to be outside and easier to drive and conserving energy, too. On the flip side, standard time aligns better with our natural circadian rhythms and so is better for our overall health. 

Darker evenings or darker mornings? I guess it depends on whether you are a morning or night person. 

Living in Chicago, right next to Indiana, I know first hand how confusing time changes can be. The part of Indiana that is closest to Chicago stays on Central Time, while the rest of Indiana is on Eastern Time. That makes sense, though I think those Hoosiers on Central Time are technically breaking the law. Illinoisans need to remember that there is a time change when going into Indiana; members of my family have forgotten that a few times and missed appointments.

I was fortunate to visit China in 2005 as part of a teacher group. We visited Beijing, Xi'An, and Kunming in the Yunnan province. All of China, as large as it is, is on the same time. People just adjust the time at which they do things. School starts later in the western part of the country. The time when the sum is directly overhead, noon in most places in the world, can be as late as 3:00 in western China. I wasn't in China long enough to see how this effects people. 

Clock time is a social construct, one which we obviously need in order to function in the modern world, whatever we decide about what time it actually is. 

Getting back to U.S. time changes, I dislike the change, whether leaping forward or falling backward. It takes me several days to adjust; meanwhile I feel out of sync. I'd like a year-round time, whichever time the government might choose.