"Light Sleep?"

 I did something this morning I haven't done in months--I slept late. Now, to be fair, sleeping late in this house means rolling out of bed at 7 AM, since we're usually up between 5:30 and 6. Still, it's really rare for me to do that--and rarer still for Jill to do so as well.

What kept us in bed? We're not sure, but we think light might have something to do with it. In our part of the world right now, sunrise isn't until around 7:30, so "first light" is right around 7. The blame for that is, at least in part, on Daylight Saving Time, which doesn't end in the United States until the first weekend of November. And then we'll need another month to get used to that change.

This does not mean, however, that I am in favor of year-round DST--precisely because of what it means in terms of dark early mornings. I can remember waiting at the school bus stop in deep twilight with my kids in January--and that is with Standard Time in effect! With DST, we'd have been waiting in the pitch of night. There are those who would argue that the solution to that is to start school later...but that would just turn the twilight trip from morning to afternoon. (Sunset in mid-January is 5 PM. Move school hours 90 minutes later, and that afternoon school bus is arriving home just about then.) It would also make after-school activities nearly impossible.

If anything, I would actually shorten DST. It's currently nearly two-thirds of the year! I think late April to early October is about right.