Daylight Saving Time 2017 News: Sleep Deprived Judges Dole Out Harsher Sentences

Daylight Saving Time 2017 is here and you will lose an hour along with the rest of the nation at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 12 when the clocks officially “spring ahead.” Research around the pros and cons of Daylight Saving Time continues, and the consensus seems to indicate that adjusting the time by an hour twice a year offers more negative aspects rather than benefits.

You’ve heard the traditional cases stated for abolishing the time change, like heart attacks, strokes and traffic accidents being on the rise during the days following the Daylight Saving Time change. What about your chances in court when facing a sleep deprived judge after that hour loss in March with the DST clock change? New research might have you thinking twice about facing a judge during the week following the Daylight Saving Time clock change.

Time to spring forward this Sunday!! It means longer days, nicer weather and the loss of an hour. Make the… https://t.co/bwhXohi2Nf

— St Andrews Insurance (@St_Andrews_Ins) March 9, 2017

Fox & Friends Weekend on Saturday talked about the hour loss due to the clock change for Daylight Saving Time, which they will feel immediately because they work weekends. The majority of the work force has Sunday as a buffer to prepare themselves for rising an hour earlier starting Monday morning for their workweek.

At 6:30 on Saturday morning, the Fox & Friends Weekend cast gave that shout out to President Donald Trump to please get rid of the Daylight Savings Time change. While there’s nothing Trump could do about Sunday’s time change, maybe he could start the ball rolling to abolish Daylight Savings Time for the future.

The Boston Globe doesn’t sugarcoat how they feel about the Daylight Savings Time change, offering proof in an article today that Daylight Saving Time is “dumb, dangerous, and costly.” They cite some of the newest research that points to big problems when you mess with a person’s sleep cycle. The incidents of health issues and accidents rising in the days following the March Daylight Savings Time change is something you have heard about for years, but there is one you’ve might not have heard of.

Daylight Saving Time in March causes interference with your sleep cycle. Many find themselves a bit sleep deprived in the days following the clock change. With that said, you might not want to take your chances in court during the days immediately following the March Daylight Savings Time change. According to the Boston Globe, research shows that judges, who are sleep deprived following the March Daylight Saving Time change, tend to hand out harsher sentences. That is probably something that folks haven’t thought much about as a factor when it comes to estimating your chances of winning or losing your case.

Another odd side effect of Daylight Saving Time is discussed in the Boston Globe article. Diana Farrell, who is president and chief executive of the JPMorgan Chase Institute offers up some spending data to the Globe around the DST change. At the end of the work day, the light or darkness will play a factor with consumer spending at local stores. If it is light out, people are more apt to stop at a store on their way home from work and shop rather than if it is dark.

Spending at local stores goes down when it is darker during the afternoon commute in this research involving local transactions. ”At the end of the day, it’s either dark or light, and [people are] going to make an impulse decision at that point,” said Farrell.

She suggested that maybe people opt to shop online if it is dark out while traveling home from work. This is just a suggestion, as there is no data on the online spending as this study only tracked sales transactions locally.

Fox & Friends made an observation the first week Trump was in office about the lights going on in the residence part of the White House earlier in the morning than they had for the previous administration. Just from the time stamp on Donald Trump’s tweets, there’s no debating this man is up earlier than most people, so he doesn’t appear to mind working whether it is light or dark.

Clayton Morris “begs” Donald Trump to get rid of Daylight Saving Time, his co-host adds, “all it will take is a flip of a pen.” It may be a little more involved than a signature, as Congress would need to get involved, according to an article from the Business Insider.

Clayton also schooled the audience on Daylight Saving Time vs. Daylight Savings Time, with the “s” on the word savings. He said that there is no “s” in saving and the correct way to say and spell this time event is “Daylight Saving Time.”

[Featured Image by Charlie Riedel/AP News]