Dealing with the lag

This past weekend saw the start of Daylight Savings Time here in the majority of the United States. Following the adage of “Spring Forward,” clocks go forward an hour. Why is it, then, that my body doesn’t follow suit and I get an extra spring in my step? Here it is Wednesday, and I’m still feeling some residual effects of the time shift.

The idea of Daylight Savings Time has a variety of reasons. Some think it’s to benefit — or aggravate — farmers or promote health and leisure activities in the summertime, while others might consider it a political movement.

The first proposals for the time change were for various reasons, among them bugs, golf and sleep. George Hudson, an entomologist from New Zealand, proposed a two-hour time shift in 1895, which would allow him more time to collect bugs after his regular job.

In 1905, William Willett, an English outdoorsman and builder suggested a one-hour shift after seeing how many of his fellow countrymen slept in summer days; he was also not fond of cutting his golf game short when the sun went down.

Daylight Savings Time is a concept which has been used and abandoned — especially in times of war — and the actual time increments used vary as well from country to country. In some cases, clocks move ahead by only 20 minutes.

This past Legislature even saw a bill, which later failed, that would’ve exempted us from Daylight Savings Time and lumped us in with Arizona.

Thankfully, spring looks like it’s moving forward, judging by the forecast, so we might finally have seen the last of the snow for the year. It still doesn’t make it any easier to get my brain going in the morning. Thank goodness for caffeine.