Adjusting time

Created: — modified: — tags: politics

What do I think about it and how I'd like it to be.

So there is this day again, when we adjust our clock 1 hour.

Wikipedia suggests that we do it not only for saving energy, but also for people's comfort - so we could enjoy the sunlight.

It makes sense: during winter, when sun shines for four hours only, you'd like to be outside when it's there. On normal (working) days most people are outside when they're going to work in the morning (around 8--9 am) and when they're going back home in the evening. It's more preferable to wake up during sunshine, so one would prefer the short sunny time to be around 7--11 am.

In spring, however, days are getting longer, and when the light day get longer then a working day (say, 12 hours), you would want to have sun both when you go to work and when you're coming back -- so, from 7 am to 7 pm.

So looks like optimal time adjustment is "so sunrise is always at 7am" (assuming that for average 9-to-5 working day, when most people wake up at 7 and go to work at 8).

This looks similar to Byzantine time, where clocks are adjusted in such a way that day started (00:00) always at sunset. Maybe that's because warmest time of the day is usually closer to sunset then to sunrise, or because it's easier to miss sunrise then sunset (people sleep at night).

During summer, some people find it hard to fall asleep when it's light outside -- so it would make sense to organise time in such a way that dark time will be when people are going to sleep, but it would make all system too complex.

And what do you think? How would you organise daytime if you could decide? Drop me a line (email is at the bottom of the page) so I could include your opinion on this page!