Time Inflation

August 10th, 2012
ideas, time
On average the sun is up 6am to 6pm, but people's schedules are later. [1] We try to fix this with Daylight Savings Time, moving solar noon to ~1pm. Britain has considered a Single-Double system where solar noon would be ~1pm in the winter (like DST) and ~2pm in the summer (double DST). We can take this further, and match our society better to the daylight hours: every year survey people to find out the middle time point of the average day. If that's more than an hour away from solar noon, add or remove an hour to move us closer to matching the sun.

(Why do people stay up later than the sun? What happens when you try to fight that? Do people just stay up later? Do we like it to be dark out? Do we have trouble getting ourselves to go to bed?)


[1] If you surveyed Americans my guess is you'd get something like 7am to midnight.

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Linkpost for September

Regular announcements: did you know you can hire me for life coaching and general consulting? You can also buy my novella Her Voice Is A Backwards Record wherever fine books are sold (except Google Books).

via Thing of Things September 8, 2025

Against the Teapot Hold in Contra Dancing

The teapot hold is the most dangerous common contra dancing figure, so I’ve been avoiding it. The teapot hold, sometimes called a "courtesy turn hold,” requires one dancer to connect with their hand behind their back. When I realized I could avoid put…

via Emma Azelborn August 25, 2025

Little Puppy

She's very little and she likes to do stuff with me. She also likes to bark around and run around and jump around. She also likes to go to places with me and that's all I have.

via Nora Wise's Blog Posts August 23, 2025

more     (via openring)