In the never-ending debate about daylight saving time, one western state is unique — and by God, I’m gonna miss it.
State of play: I’ve been in Tucson for the past week, and my whole family slipped into Arizona’s standard-time summer like we were born for it.
- That’s because we were.
The big picture: The DST dispute fundamentally weighs money-making against health.
- DST is associated with higher consumer spending as people stay out later.
- But science shows standard time better aligns with our natural sleep cycles.
Threat level: Spring forward correlates with more illness and injury than fall back does, from heart attacks to car wrecks.
The intrigue: The anti-DST argument often focuses on the dark mornings we’d have to endure in winter.
- But as summer solstice approaches, it’s Utah’s late sunsets that my family is dreading after a week of fairly pleasant June evenings in a much hotter state.
Zoom in: When we arrived for a 7pm dinner reservation here, I was shocked to find a dusky patio full of happy patrons after a 101°F day.
- No one I know in Salt Lake City wants to squint on a patio that soon after triple-digit temps. As every bedtime-averse Utah toddler knows, 7pm is still afternoon in summer.
Early the next morning, my kid happily yawned, “It’s so nice to wake up when it’s really, actually light out.”…