Opinion: Matt Heath - is daylight saving rubbish?

Auckland city sunset. Photo / 123rf

OPINION:

Is daylight saving rubbish? Should we kick it to the curb or flick the clock forward all year? As far as our biology is concerned, we are all starting our day off an hour earlier this morning. Daylight saving went into effect at 2am yesterday. Not that you had to do much about it. These days with smartphones clicking over automatically, there is far less admin involved. Although, that doesn't stop that alarm you forgot to turn off for the Queen's Memorial hurting when it rings.

In New Zealand, we advance the clocks between the end of September and the start of April. This allows more clock time for sunny post-work activities. When it was introduced, it was argued that it would save energy.

In daylight saving, you don't need to use lights at the end of the day, and you don't use them earlier because you are still asleep. The value of this is now heavily disputed. You could argue the sun does most of that work for us naturally.

Especially for the lower South Island, where I grew up. The shape of the earth and the axis it's on make for very long summer days down there. For that reason, it was not popular with the kids I hung out with.

We all look back in anger at those long months trying to go to sleep with the sun blasting through the curtains. The intense FOMO fostered by being forced to lie in bed while other kids played outside our windows will live with us for life.

It had a massive effect on a good friend of mine. As soon as he was old enough, he registered his distaste at those early nights with a giant full-back tattoo of the moon and stars. He has been up all night ever since.

On the Matt and Jerry Breakfast show on Radio Hauraki this week, we ran a wildly unscientific opt-in poll asking our listeners how they felt about daylight saving. The results were split right down the middle.

On the anti-daylight saving side, one angry texter put it this way, "It is bloody stupid. Summer takes care of the light hours in the day. Changing the effing clocks means those of us up at the crack of arse are back to dark mornings and feeling jet lagged for weeks. Leave the clocks alone!"

Another communicated this deep opinion. 'It's just bureaucrats f - - - ing with our circadian rhythms', and finally a not-so-smart listener claimed: "If we got rid of daylight savings It would solve global warming. That extra hour of sun must be heating the earth terribly."

Comments from the daylight saving fans included, "Daylight saving is genius! When else can I put my bloody kids to bed and still have daylight to do things I want to do?". Another came in hot with this, "Daylight saving is great for golf after dinner, anyone who doesn't like it should be shot" and a farmer phoned in with, "It's just an elite city-based Auckland thing. My cows don't give a crap about what the clock says. They are up when they are up and I'm up with them. Don't touch my clock."

Another text took aim at New Zealand rock legends Shihad, "Johnny Toogood should have had another go at singing the line 'Turn the clocks back for the winter', in Home Again. He's very flat. It's a good song and handing for working out what to do with your clocks, but, come on mate, is that the best you can sing?". Harsh!

In the end, after 2417 votes, the result fell 52 per cent in favour of daylight saving. Maybe pushed across the finish line by our mainly urban-dwelling audience.

We have had daylight saving time in New Zealand since 1927, and we extended it in 2007. A 2008 survey found that 82 per cent of Kiwis approved. It's popular in the United States too.

In one of the few times Democrats and Republicans have agreed on anything, on March 15, 2021, by unanimous consent, the Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act. It would have made daylight saving time permanent starting November 5, 2023, if the House and the president had approved it. Which, unsurprisingly, hasn't happened yet.

In New Zealand, turning the clocks forward and back for the seasons looks like it's here to stay. The only major dissenters were farmers, the South Island town of Te Anau, and the hard-to-programme clock on my microwave.