TOP OF MIND: On daylight saving time, do you mind the change or want to end the change?

Top of Mind is a weekly question about an issue affecting New Mexicans.

LAST WEEK’S QUESTION:

On daylight saving time, do you mind the change or want to end the change?

The twice-a-year time change needs to stop. The purpose DST was created is no longer applicable in this day and age. Therefore either one or the other, preferably the current MST, but not both.

— Lores Klingbeil Albuquerque

Daylight saving time was enacted in 1918 by Woodrow Wilson to cut energy costs during WWI. Now 83% of Americans believe it currently fails to achieve its goal. DST disrupts sleep and impacts overall health and well-being. Therefore, I believe staying on Mountain Standard Time would be best for New Mexicans.

— Russell Kaye Albuquerque

Stop the switch! Go to permanent Standard time. Standard time is based on solar time that living beings use to regulate their circadian rhythms. Daylight saving time is artificial and saves nothing. If you want everything to be an hour earlier, please move to Texas. Let the rest of us enjoy healthy “real” time.

— Frank Fisher, M.D. Rio Rancho

The DST hour forward move is March 2024. We should leave it there. When initiated in 1918, we were more agrarian than today. Technology has provided agricultural businesses with means of negating the effects of less daylight. The 1- hour movement is no longer beneficial, now it’s just a hassle.

— Ray Blanco Rio Rancho

I want to see daylight saving time end. It interrupts people’s sleep cycles twice a year for no real benefit that I can find. As climate change continues with the resultant increase in summer temperatures, the last thing we need is more hours of sunlight. If we stay with standard time, the sun will set earlier in the hot summertime and lighten the skies in the fall at the time children return to school. …

— Marilyn Lohr Albuquerque

This time change flows fairly good except in the spring when you set the clocks back. As a seasoned teacher, I remember the spring time switch occurred about the third week of April. I welcomed this change during that time. I enjoyed early morning walks before school, seeing spring blooming. Then they made it about three weeks earlier and it wrecked the bliss and the students felt rushed. Then President Reagan later on made it three weeks earlier at the beginning of March. …Reagan didn’t start working in the Oval Office until 9 a.m. from what I heard. He relaxed while students and workers rushed at an early time.

— Theodore R. Carlson Albuquerque

I would like to remain on standard time as daylight saving time messes with my circadian rhythm terribly, I never recover until it returns to standard time.

— Carol Singer Rio Rancho

Daylight saving time extends too far into the year. If it would start May 1 and end Oct. 1, the change in light would be far less drastic and be easier for the body to adapt.

— Joanne Sanford Albuquerque

I don’t mind either time change. I wish we could just change our clocks a half hour once. That should work to keep both sides happy and make it so we don’t have to listen to this biannual argument anymore.

— Joe Alexanian II Albuquerque