Clocks have moved back an hour, and November 5th marked the end of Daylight savings time in 2023. Daylight savings time is a system of time that allows an extra hour of light in the evenings in summer and part of spring. [It also] allows another hour of light in the morning in part of autumn and winter. To observe daylight savings, clocks are moved forward one hour on the second Sunday of March, and are moved an hour back on the first Sunday in November every year.
A group of people that are heavily affected by daylight savings are students. With heavy workloads, as well as extracurricular activities such as sports, clubs, and service, there is a strain to keep a routine and schedule all activities each day. To find out how different students felt about daylight savings, I asked three students how it personally affected their routines and whether they felt it was necessary to turn the clocks back every year.
There are both benefits and drawbacks of daylight saving time. “I don’t necessarily think they’re helpful,” said Belen Brown, a South Lakes High School Student. “[However,] at the same time, I feel like they’ve been going on for such a long time that the act of getting rid of them would be kind of hard for some people because they’re just so used to the schedule and setting back the clocks every year.”
At the same time, there are extremely strong feelings of daylight savings being unnecessary. “Why would you wake up in the morning to brightness when it should be dark, and when you want to hang out at 5 o’clock it’s literally like midnight?” said Aryana Singh, another South Lakes Student.
The amount of daylight is also a reason that some students feel the lack of necessity with the changes of times. “I just see no point. Can we just keep it consistent, [there’s] no need to do all that.” stated Astrid Jaxtheimer. Jaxtheimer, too, added on: “When I’m getting ready for school, I wake up a little bit earlier because of the sun waking me up and it’s darker earlier so my parents want me home a little earlier.”
There is a spectrum of feelings about daylight savings time. On one hand, it is a way to utilize more sunlight in the earlier hours of the morning during the winter. On the other hand, there is the question of how useful it is because of the early sunsets that occur when the clocks turn back. Daylight savings have a significant impact on students and the consistency in their routines.
