That's what the research supports. People go out more and spend money more when the sun is up after the working day. Kids play more. People exercise more.
Ahh, I think I read the comment I was replying to backwards (which is par for the course when it comes to TZ/DST-type things with me, "is it an hour earlier? or later").
No, you read it correctly the first time around. E.g. from the first link in the dump above:
> we find that an extra hour of natural light in the evening
reduces sleep duration by an average of 19 minutes and increases the likelihood of reporting insufficient sleep.
The health benefits of people staying out longer and spending more money (?) are disputed I believe. The reduced sleep of day starting before sun-up are pretty universally recognized as bad for public health (particularly among teenagers).
Also note that if staying out longer was a goal to strive for, there are number of alternatives to encourage that. Including shorter worker ours, more public spaces, public events, etc. Conversely getting people to sleep longer is much harder with the clock set 1+ hour after the sun clock.
> Also note that if staying out longer was a goal to strive for, there are number of alternatives to encourage that. Including shorter worker ours, more public spaces, public events, etc. Conversely getting people to sleep longer is much harder with the clock set 1+ hour after the sun clock.
This are fantastic points I don't see in discussions around the topic. Goes to show that the solution space for a problem is often constrained by our perceptions of both the problem and what our expectations of a reasonable solution are.
My kid doesn't go to sleep earlier just because the sun sets at 5PM. In fact, he has gotten used to spending most of his evenings in darkness, not being able to go to the park after school to let off some energy makes him go to bed later rather than earlier.
Farmers don't care about the clock, neither do the cows. Work traditionally started when the sun came up, and cows got fed then too... since cows still can't read the clock, they still get up and want food at sunrise, DST or not.
Haha! I worked on a dairy farm in my youth. Cows also don't care about what days off your government says you should have. Kids have a recital in the afternoon? Better have someone there to milk the cows. Woke up with a tooth ache? better have someone there to milk the cows.
Almost all 'blue collar' work starts at 7:00 AM. It isn't about farmers. I was a farmer once, my day started at 4:30 AM.
But I worked blue collar after that, my job 7:30 to 5:00, or 7:30 to 8:00 on long days.
Even in my current white collar job, that habit has stuck, and I have been working 7:30 AM to 4:30 AM for the last thirty five years, mostly to avoid the bulk of the commute.
So yes, there are millions of jobs across this country where people arrive at work, and punch in on a clock, at 7:00 AM every morning.
I worked a blue color job where I was at work at 5:30 AM, sometimes 4:30 AM. The fact that it was never light out when I went to work, even when standard time was in effect, didn't bother me much.
> Sounds like you work in an all indoor environment where the sun matters not to your livelihood, unlike farmers.
My (late) grandparent were farmers: they only cared about the time on Sundays to make sure they weren't late for Church services. Otherwise the the cows needed milking when they needed milking (which I helped with when I visited them).
They care even more about Year-round Standard Time:
> We therefore strongly support removing DST changes or removing permanent DST and having governing organizations choose permanent Standard Time for the health and safety of their citizens.
Well, good thing we've never let that stand in the way of a decision. /s
Personally I'd prefer more light later in the day so that I don't feel like the day is over as soon as I get off work but that's just me.