I distinctly remember around this time last year, Congress made a lot of noise about ending Daylight Savings. They cited many reasons why it was no longer needed and even dangerous to continue the tradition of “springing forward” an hour, which robs us of an hour of sleep.
Not to mention those of us who watched the Oscars, which miraculously ended before midnight. I actually went to bed at the “normal” time even though my body still registered it as an hour earlier. Not sure how long it’ll take my circadian rhythms to catch up with the time adjustment this time around. What I should have done was take something to help me fall asleep prior to going to bed, but I took a sleep supplement a few hours after the fact.
On Monday, I posted a picture of an Oscar award and Oscar the Grouch, asking my coworkers which Oscar they felt like. At least I made them laugh. Not being a coffee drinker myself, I wondered how many pounded more coffee than usual.
Right on cue, all the articles and interviews about the benefits of sleep entered the news cycle. As if the only thing robbing most Americans of quality-of-life-enhancing rest is setting the clock forward an hour once a year. What about American grind culture?
One theory states that our government wants to keep the majority of us grinding away at the edge of poverty. If the majority of us are more focused on survival strategies, then we don’t have the luxury of time and rest to contemplate or even act upon things to protest and demand better.
As a result, once again, only the rich can afford to rest and lobby for the change that they want to see. The glaring problem with that is that whatever changes the rich want to see, by design, doesn’t work for the majority of us. As a matter of fact, those changes only work to maintain the status quo.
When something is nearly impossible to accomplish, Dad says that the situation takes an act of Congress. This is something that Congress will NEVER act upon. Hell, they can’t even do away with Daylight Savings. Might as well just enjoy the sunshine.