If the whole reason to have daylight savings time in the first place was to get more evening daylight hours, then why not have daylight savings time go the whole year? That way we'd never have to adjust our clocks. And on December 21st, instead of sunset being at 5:04 PM in Provo, UT, it would be at 6:04 PM. That sounds great until you realize that dawn would be at 8:46 AM.
Now, if we actually had DST last all year, people would adjust their schedules accordingly. But DST forces people to get up to go to work earlier, and entices them to stay up later. In the winter, we don't have kids playing outside at 9:00 pm because by then it has been dark for hours (and cold). Yet in the summer, kids are playing outside until well past 9:00 pm.
What if we changed our work schedules along with daylight savings time? On March 20, we set our clocks forward an hour, and went to work an hour later. Then on November 2, we set our clocks back an hour, and went to work an hour earlier. Work would start at 8:00 am in the winter, and 9:00 am in the summer.
Setting clocks forward an hour benefits people who like to stay up late and can still get up early. But if we instead set the clocks back an hour, it could benefit everyone. We could alternate years, and could switch our clocks back an hour for the summer, and the next year, set our clocks forward for the summer.
That way sunrise would be at 3:57 AM on June 21st, and sunset would be at 7:00 PM. Since it would be dark in the evening, we could get to bed on time, and we could be able to get up on time in the morning for work.
Here's a table of sunrise and sunset times for Provo, UT. The times in bold are standard times. The columns under dawn and dusk are times without adjusting for daylight savings time.
| 1 hr advance | Dawn | 1 hr delay | 1 hr advance | Dusk | 1 hr delay | 1 hr advance | Solar Noon | 1 hr delay | |
| August 10 | 04:33 AM | 05:33 AM | 06:33 AM | 06:30 PM | 07:30 PM | 08:30 PM | 11:32 AM | 12:32 PM | 01:32 PM |
| Fall equinox Sep 22 | 05:14 AM | 06:14 AM | 07:14 AM | 05:24 PM | 06:24 PM | 07:24 PM | 11:19 AM | 12:19 PM | 01:19 PM |
| DST end November 2 | 05:57 AM | 06:57 AM | 07:57 AM | 04:23 PM | 05:23 PM | 06:23 PM | 11:10 AM | 12:10 PM | 01:10 PM |
| Winter solstice Dec 21 | 06:46 AM | 07:46 AM | 08:46 AM | 04:04 PM | 05:04 PM | 06:04 PM | 11:25 AM | 12:25 PM | 01:25 PM |
| DST start March 9 | 05:48 AM | 06:48 AM | 07:48 AM | 05:27 PM | 06:27 PM | 07:27 PM | 11:37 AM | 12:37 PM | 01:37 PM |
| Spring equinox March 20 | 05:30 AM | 06:30 AM | 07:30 AM | 05:39 PM | 06:39 PM | 07:39 PM | 11:34 AM | 12:34 PM | 01:34 PM |
| Summer solstice June 21 | 03:57 AM | 04:57 AM | 05:57 AM | 07:00 PM | 08:00 PM | 09:00 PM | 11:28 AM | 12:28 PM | 01:28 PM |
Sounds crazy? I thought so. Here's a suggestion. How about we abolish daylight savings time? That way, we wouldn't have to worry about changing clocks. For the clocks that adjust for DST, you can also set them to not adjust for DST. So if your area doesn't observe DST, your clocks still work. It's already implemented in the hardware.
