Yet again, the weekend is upon the US that seems to sneak up every year – Daylight Savings.  We have long justified DST on the grounds of saving energy (brighter evenings means less demand for electricity), but a 2008 study found the opposite to be true.  Prior to 2006, Indiana was one of the only states with counties that observed and did not observe DST.  The study concluded that even though lighting demand dropped, the extra daylight tacked onto each evening ultimately led to more air-conditioning thereby canceling the benefit from reduced lighting.  Consequently, Indiana residents paid higher electric bills.  Other studies have found that DST increases our chance for a heart attack by 10% and our internal clocks never fully adjust to the time change.

The economic impacts of daylight savings for certain industries are quite large.  Being out of sync with European time changes costs the airline industry in the US approximately $147 million.  Utah State University economists have estimated that the mere 1-hour change represents an annual 1.7 billion in lost opportunity cost for the television industry alone.  Dairy farmers also say that the time change is extremely disruptive for milking cows.  Not to mention, over half of Americans are against DST in the first place as Rasmussen recently reported.

This week, The Atlantic, suggested a very interesting alternative – not only to do away with Daylight Savings Time, but also convert the US into only 2 time zones.   Schrager argues in the article that since Americans rely more on television than daylight to regulate their schedules, America already effectively lives in two zones (with little regard to light).  Two time zones would also help to streamline business (no more 3 hour differences) by allowing people to travel with ease between zones and create more productive business hours.  As someone who has to travel between time zones all the time and adjust to new sleeping patterns, I have to say, this sounds incredibly appealing at first glance.  What do all of you think?