To DST or not DST? That is the Question. Let's use Standard Time year 'round!
This article attempts to address the insanity of people saying that DST is "better", and there for we should switch to DST permanently, year round.
We also make the case that time zones themselves are antiquated.
As you may know, there are 4 zones across USA: Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern. World Time zones are irregular, even in the ocean, and certainly on other continents. I confess to my North American view point here but the reasoning is general.
Time zones are approximately 1,000 miles wide at the equator - less wide in the higher latitudes. Time moves across a zone in one hour. So, one could say that the Speed of Time is about 1000 miles per hour!
I am at 45° latitude in the Pacific Time Zone. I expect the earth and sun to do their thing naturally. People in Iceland or Alaska get The Midnight Sun. People at 'lower' latitudes (closer to equator) get somewhat more equal day and night year round.
All of which is further perturbed by the TILT of the earth in orbit, which accounts for our seasons — which is what this is all about, but beyond the scope of the article.
Exact Solar noon (i.e. when the sun is directly over head) varies based on where you are located East-West wise in a given time zone.
The sun sets LATER, i.e. later in the day, for people in the western section of their time zone. That is, the sun DOES NOT set at exactly the same time - in any sense - all across a time zone, and then jump one hour in the adjacent time zone - sunset varies continuously across the zone.
Same with Sun Rise. The sun rises EARLIER for folks in the eastern section of their timezone.
Clock Time does change abruptly across time zone boundaries.
The list is under development. See references for plenty of problems. I'll put a few here.
People seem to be considering three distinct options:
Permanent DST is nothing more than just leaving everyone trapped in an adjacent time zone. Which is patently absurd.
The act of changing to DST literally slams everyone over one time zone, as if they are living in THAT time zone. (Without the resulting different Sun time!) Then when DST ends, everyone gets slammed back into their Natural time zone, better aligned with Sun time. Please read Kendra Crick's excellent article (in References below) to learn why time changes are unhealthy.
I am in the "Drop Daylight Time altogether" camp.
Next, I ask what if Timezones themselves are an outdated invention... Is it time to de-emphasize time zones?
The Internet and communication satellites have made life on earth instant-world-round, as Bucky Fuller said. The fact is, people in different time zones will be experiencing different daylight hours (relative to Universal Time, or GMT). So, people working on the east & west coasts are going to be 3 or 4 hours apart no matter what! Same problem would exist whether DST or not DST. Europe & US are 8 hours +/-. Some companies roll their shifts to staff in other timezones with the passing waking hours.
It's romantic to think of everyone having their nice Noon and magical Midnight -- Dinner at 5pm (7pm?) Working from 8 to 5, or is it 9 to 6? These things are called Social Time or Work Time. Maybe we need to change the way we think about "time" and how to "Tell Time". You could still have Noon and Midnight, just not at 12:00.
What if the Earth had just one time zone (GMT) — Business and school hours would be set accordingly. When you say: "Let's chat at 1500", there would be no need to figure what their time was in your respective local time zones, and so on. Since one person may be in the middle of their night, we need some awareness of local time. (That's assuming all people sleep at night!)
We'd all be in World Time and some Local Time simultaneously, switching between them as needed. A Clock/Watch face could display World and Local Time differently. These days, iPhones (Androids) can display local times for an curated list of locations.
Time zone changes often happen when traveling. On an eastbound trip, you may 'loose' a number of hours, flying against time, whereas a westbound trip magically gains time. We could ignore some of this if we adopted GMT earth-wide, at least Flight schedules would be less confusing! (Obviously, no real time is lost or gained when traveling, but time is spent.)
Businesses — would set their hours accordingly Just post business hours, which could be based on local sunlight hours or other factors.
Schools — set hours based around the sun being up? Well that depends on your latitude. Not enough daylight for an 8 hours day?
Stores — We had 'Summer Hours' and shorter 'Winter Hours' at East Valley Thrift Store, our family grocery store, in the 1960-70's.
Golfers — Real golfers — hit the links at sunrise, or at least they could.
Steve retorts: I have no use for light before I get up most days, and lots of use for light before I go to bed. I can adjust my sleep/wake times, but the rest of the world runs on 9-5 so we’re stuck with the effects of that.
We respond: The Rest of the World includes Morning People who like more light in the AM. Permanent DST was tried in the 70's during the Energy Crisis, and people hated it.
(This section may be expanded with other responses. The References section contains plenty of arguments and counter-arguments.)
The problem is, proponents of permanent DST have most likely not experienced DST in the dead of winter.
A link appears with each reference, to the source. All LINKS checked 3/2026.
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