Daylight Savings Now in Effect, Xanax Prescriptions Soar
Plus, dog ears
Last week’s top comment goes to CK Steefel….
Daylight Savings Now In Effect, Xanax Prescriptions Soar
In my previous career, whether or not I got to keep my job was a direct result of if we won enough football games. So, when Daylight Saving Time (DST) rolled around, all that meant for me was either less practice time, or practice moving locations…usually to an even shittier one.
You really don’t know what it’s like to coach D3 football until you’ve gotten light-headed from the exhaust fumes of a gasoline-powered light stand while trying to coach 5-step drops.
Every season I would get sick to some degree with a cold or the flu. Most likely because for at least an hour a day I sat around a staff table with six or seven other coaches. All of whom were taking about as good care of themselves as I was, which meant not very much.
Unless you consider Diet Coke and beef jerky superfoods.
Then, my first fall not coaching rolled around, and that pesky tumor in my brain captured my attention. So, I was a little preoccupied. But in subsequent years, I’ve come to realize how much the dramatic change in our days affects me.
It’s hardly shocking that waking up one morning at 6 am to total darkness and the next to broad daylight might scramble our reptilian brains. But still, many of us don’t realize what is happening to us. We’ve got bills to pay, obligations to meet, and children to raise.
As with many dumbass ideas, this one came about because of war. Although floated as an idea in previous centuries by the likes of Benjamin Franklin1, a New Zealand bug collector2, and a British golfer3….DST wasn’t officially enacted by governments until the two World Wars. It was done so primarily as a cost-saving method…more daylight waking hours meant the coal supply lasted longer.
However, at the conclusion of both of those wars, time reverted back to ‘standard.’ Interestingly, from the end of WWII up until 1966, each locality in the US could determine whether or not it used DST. As you can imagine, this was a clusterf*ck.
Get this: at one point in Iowa during that time, there were 23 different start and end times to DST. I believe scholars point to this being the etymology of the common acronym for people from this fine state:
So, when Lyndon B. Johnson and the federal government passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966, it was mainly to help unf*ck the cluster. Railroads and airlines had become a particular mess. As one transportation official at the time put it, “we have more time zones than airlines.”
That statement held more sway at the time, seeing as this was before the airline industry began cannibalizing itself, leaving us with the dystopian hellscape that is Philadelphia International Airport…
During all of this time, literally no consideration was given to the effect these changes had on the population. It’s almost as though the same government that thought it was okay to test over a thousand nuclear weapons in some of the most pristine environments on the planet wasn’t concerned with the well-being of human beings.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) was first labeled as a clinical disorder in 1984. And, contrary to what that wussy-sounding acronym makes you think, SAD has very harsh, real-world implications.
Short-term spikes in things like heart attacks, traffic accidents, and suicidal ideation are noted every year after the changing of the clocks. And I can tell you from personal experience, my deposits into our communal coaching swear jar always spiked around this time as well.
Earlier this week I had an episode where SAD grabbed a hold of me. It was Wednesday night, and I had a rare evening alone. You may have heard me describe previously my troubles with turning my brain off. Well, sometimes this can be advantageous.
I was planning on using my alone time to work on my book project. Something was off, though. After taking our pups for a walk around 3:30, during which time I could see the sun setting, I felt tired.
Very tired.
Tired in a way I don’t usually get. My plan for that evening was to lay out all of the semi-completed chapters of the book on the floor, in an effort to work on the overall story arc.
Normally this would’ve excited me. But not on this night. Knowing that forcing myself to complete a task that should bring me joy would not only be miserable, but more importantly, unfruitful…I bailed. I fed the doggos, made some popcorn, and hopped in bed.
I was asleep by 8 pm.4
To be clear, this has never happened to me before. And I don’t mean the feeling that way part of the story. I mean the listening to my body part of the story.
I’ve been sick and tired before. Fevers, flus, tumors….whatever. But this was different. I wasn’t sick.
Yet.
It was as if my body was saying, “Hey bud, this ain’t happening tonight. And if you want it to, that’s fine, just know I can’t handle it. And you’re gonna eventually wind up sick as a result.”
I woke up the next morning, read parts of two books, and promptly banged out 2,000 words. Because that’s what I do on writing mornings. And because I felt great.
Because I listened to my body.
So, as we all collectively embark upon this joyous season of mood disorders and government haplessness, let’s remember to listen to our bodies, trust our circadian rhythms, and raise a giant middle finger to those bozos in DC.
How about you? Does SAD effect you? And more importantly, how do you handle it? Let me know in the comments!
And now, dogs….
Go Birds.
Long story.
Longer story.
To my writing friends, yes, I do write when I don’t want to as well. This was just different.
Even our befuddled president knows that there is something wrong with switching the clocks twice a year. But he’s confused. He wants to get rid of daylight savings time, when the result we should be looking for is to make it permanent. That would avoid this early darkness that is such a problem. Even though DJT is backwards, he will stubbornly stick to his guns and we’ll all be f*d.
Another senseless war-related incident. Also, thanks for sharing the “Stevie” sample, Henny.