Scooter Nation—
Fall back or Standard Time is this weekend. This time change gives you an extra hour of sleep, unlike its evil, sleep sucking stepsister, Spring. This weekend, at 2:00 AM on November 6th, Daylight Saving Time will end, and revert back to Standard Time. You’ll need to wind back the clock one hour, going back in time (like M.J. Fox and Doc à la Huey Lewis) to 1:00 AM.
DLST vs ST has an interesting history.
For example, a man, born just after 12:00 a.m. DST, circumvented the Vietnam War draft by using a daylight saving time loophole.
West Bank terrorists prepared time bombs and smuggled them to their Israeli counterparts, who misunderstood the time on the bombs. As the bombs were being planted, they exploded—one hour too early—killing three terrorists instead of the intended victims—two busloads of people.
Through 2006, Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. ended a few days before Halloween (October 31). Children’s pedestrian deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of the year. A new law to extend DST to the first Sunday in November took effect in 2007, with the purpose of providing trick-or-treaters more light and therefore more safety from traffic accidents. For decades, candy manufacturers lobbied for a Daylight Saving Time extension to Halloween, as many of the young trick-or-treaters gathering candy are not allowed out after dark, and thus an added hour of light means a big holiday treat for the candy industry.
While twins born at 11:55 p.m. and 12:05 a.m. may have different birthdays, Daylight Saving Time can change birth order—on paper, anyway. During the time change in the fall, one baby could be born at 1:55 a.m. and the sibling born ten minutes later, at 1:05 a.m.
Nation—
In the past I’ve tackled romance, courting, disappointment, love, heartbreak, destiny, soul and commitment. All of these topics have either a direct or an indirect connection to happiness. A study, published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that those who reported feeling happiest had a 35% reduced risk of dying compared with those who reported feeling least happy.
Rather than rely on recollections about their feelings of happiness as in earlier studies, this British study (okay, I know what you are thinking, British? Aren’t they always miserable because of their weather?) of 3,853 participants ages 52-79 rated their feelings at different times on one particular day. Hopefully it was a sunny day but I digress. Five years later, researchers recorded the number who died and controlled for a variety of factors, including age, gender, health, wealth, education and marital status.
It seems that some of us out there are happier than others. Factors can be your wealth, health, what you are doing, education, who you are with, etc. Now this study is about a particular day and the challenges of that day and how you handle those challenges or who you rely on to help you make it through these challenges. Survey experts and psychologists have come to the view that in many ways, this is a better approach to understanding how people actually feel than asking them general questions about how happy they are. Responses to general questions are influenced strongly by personality, by what people think they ‘ought’ to say and by recollections that might not be quite accurate. What’s not clear to me is whether happy feelings are the key to longevity or if it’s something else that causes extended life.
That all being said, how happy are you? Are you where you thought you’d be at this point in your life? Are you with the right person? Do you deal with daily disappointments by letting things roll off you?
Bad days happen to all of us at some point. You could wake up in a bad mood due to lack of sleep or other interferences. It can be anything that has made you angry, sad, frustrated, disappointed, whatever. This is a day where you know up front that “it’s going to suck”.
You still have to get up and go to work, but before you even get there, you’re already seething. You try to do your job but somehow all the angry, dissatisfied people have conspired to call you and complain on the same day—though you have no idea how they coordinated that little feat. Everything your co-workers say to you sounds incredibly stupid. Everyone seems out to annoy you. The next person to open his mouth is likely to get his head ripped clean off.
Ask for help! Take a deep breath. Realize how small this issue really is compared to bigger issues you may face. Rely on your friends or family to help talk you off the angry ledge BUT don’t dwell on it too long. It too shall pass. Remember that the outcome of the previous minute is not indicative of the outcome of the next minute. Likewise, the last hour has no bearing on the next hour, and this morning is no indication of what this afternoon will bring.
Here are indicators that you are having a bad day:
- You’ve been at work 3 hours before you notice that your fly is open or your blouse unbuttoned.
- Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles.
- You have to sit down to brush your teeth in the morning.
- Everyone avoids you the morning after the company office party.
- Your income tax refund check bounces.
- Your blind date turns out to be your ex.
- You put both contacts into the same eye.
- Your doctor tells you that you’re allergic to chocolate.
- Mastercard.
- The health inspector condems your office coffee maker.
- The Gypsy fortune teller offers to refund your money when she sees your future.
- People think that you’re 40 and you’re only 25.
- It costs more to fill up your car than it did to buy it.
Until next time!