Every year once November hits, I start to feel a lingering sense of dread. Don’t get me wrong, I love the winter season—I’m always down for a snowball fight, I know all the words to Mariah Carey’s Christmas album, I’m first in line to try the new Starbucks holiday drinks, and I’ve been skiing almost since I could walk. With all these wonderful winter experiences, however, also comes the end of daylight saving time. The days grow shorter, colder, and darker. Just this week, I made my annual search through my belongings to find my cheap light therapy lamp and plugged it in underneath my desk. The cord is precariously wrapped underneath my dorm window so that I can now shine a little square of false sunlight on my face for a few minutes every morning. In this way, I brace myself against the onslaught of seasonal affective disorder (sardonically and often referred to as SAD) that I know is coming my way.
Believe it or not, in some academic circles daylight saving time is actually a very controversial topic. The idea of changing our schedules to mimic the daylight hours first surfaced with Benjamin Franklin in 1784, who felt it would be a good way to conserve candle wax. Although candles play a lesser role in our modern day-to-day lives, the concept of saving energy with daylight saving has stuck around. Hypothetically, by “springing forward” to daylight saving time in March and “falling back” to standard time in November, people are inclined to limit energy and artificial light to make better use of the planet’s natural sunlight. With time, however, this assessment has become increasingly inaccurate. In 2021, daylight has little to no bearing on our energy consumption—whether the sun is shining or not, our computer and TV screens, refrigerators, heating systems, and other technological gadgets are alive and humming at all hours of the day. So why, then, do we still observe daylight saving time? From what I can tell, beyond some arguments that it makes traffic safer and slightly decreases crime rates, the real reason we’re still “springing forward” and “falling back” each year is because it is too much work not to. In order to end daylight saving in the United States, we would need an Act of Congress, and they certainly have plenty else to be focusing on right now.
Although I realistically don’t see it ending any time soon, daylight saving is still no good for college students. Don’t be fooled by that “extra hour” of sleep you think you received last weekend—the jump in time, no matter which direction, actually disrupts our circadian rhythms and leads to most people feeling less rested, not more. Plus, because college students tend to wake up late and go to sleep later, we miss out on the extra morning sunlight associated with November’s “fall back.” We end up shuffling from the library, to Usdan, and back, exhausted, cold, and under the cover of darkness. Thus, we experience a drop in productivity, we’re more susceptible to illness—hello WesPlague—and for huge swaths of young people, without the extra serotonin from sunlight, we become more inclined toward seasonal depression (SAD).
By definition, seasonal depression is a mood disorder that occurs at the same time every year, usually starting in late fall and extending through the winter months until spring. It’s characterized by low energy, oversleeping, difficulty concentrating, feelings of hopelessness, or the loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. Be it from doctors, parents, or WebMD, we’ve all heard this list of symptoms before. It’s easy to tune out, especially when we have friends or family members who are going through worse. We have to remember that our experiences and emotions are valid. For me at least, sometimes it helps just to know that I am not the problem: there’s a scientific and chemical reason I struggle in the winter, and it won’t last forever. Sunlight and serotonin return with spring.
Plus, when we can recognize that we’re experiencing seasonal depression, it’s much easier to counteract it. Get outside, exercise, stick to a schedule, prioritize spending time with the people you love, or even consider buying a little SAD lamp like mine. Especially in the age of COVID-19, isolation has become a habit far too easy to fall into, and it generally doesn’t make anybody feel good. Although I know they sound banal, these solutions can actually work. Clichés are clichés for a reason.
I’m not the first to say it and I won’t be the last: daylight saving time is the worst. Every year, I find myself angrily questioning why it has to get dark by 5:00 PM. I should not be able to point out the Big Dipper before my Spanish tertulia meeting. Obviously, though, we don’t have the power to change it. As we move further into these harder months, all we can do is be kind to ourselves. Focus on the good things that come with winter, like Mariah Carey. Take your friends for a stroll in the snow down Main Street and splurge on some hot chocolate, or organize a roommate snowball fight. Whatever you do, keep in mind that you’re not alone, and the SAD feeling won’t last forever.
Sophie Jager can be reached at sjager@wesleyan.edu.
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