More than half of Morton East students agree that daylight saving time has not altered their wake times or sleep schedules.
According to Professor Jamie Zeitzer’s article titled “Study Suggests Americans Would Be Healthier Without Daylight Saving,” most Americans would be healthier without daylight saving. Permanent standard time would prevent over 300,000 strokes per year and reduce obesity cases by 2.6 billion.
According to an article, “Why Does Daylight Saving Time Exist?” daylight saving time was originally founded and enforced in 1918 to help save resources such as fuel and power during World War I. Working during sunlight hours meant burning less fuel, and people had the ability to work later in the day.
According to an article titled Daylight Saving Time, daylight saving time actually promotes active lifestyles and better health because when the day is lighter in the evening, people tend to participate in more outdoor activities after work.
Both students and staff at Morton East were asked to answer the question, “How has daylight saving time affected your sleep schedule?”
“(My sleeping hours have been) normal. I haven’t noticed any changes, plus I tend to go to bed later. But I still wake up at 6:00 in the morning, 7:40 at the latest. I come to school feeling tired, but for the most part, nothing’s changed. The days I feel have just gotten longer,” stated senior Ashley Vela.
Other staff had differing opinions on daylight saving and felt it gave them more time to prepare for their day.
“I wake up at 4:00 in the morning every day. I personally like daylight saving time because time goes by quicker. Sometimes you just realize that by the time you were supposed to sleep, it’s already passed. Like I said, the day and time itself go by faster,” stated Security V.
Other teachers felt daylight saving time was more convenient for their sleep schedules and overall well-being.
“Well, for me, daylight saving time is related to transportation because I love the daylight saving in Chicago. Gaining an hour and losing it makes it slightly easier for me to go to bed, especially because the sun is up early. Once the sun’s up at 6:30 a.m., I feel better about waking up earlier. If for whatever reason I don’t feel like getting up, I just drag myself out of bed,” said Nydia Valle Cabrera, Biliteracy Coach.
However, students’ opinions on daylight saving time differ slightly, as some feel that even with daylight saving time, it is still quite hard to get up so early in the morning without the help of their alarms.
“I’ve been waking up later because I was used to the feeling of waking up when the sun is up. Now I wake up by 6:30 a.m., plus I set a lot of alarms. I wake up at 8 at the latest; the earliest I wake up is 5:20, but usually I try to be awake by 6:00 a.m.,” said sophomore Maria Jose.
While some students state that daylight saving has affected their sleep schedule, other students state that it has not affected them at all.
“It hasn’t affected my sleep schedule at all,” said junior Axel Lopez.
Some students agree that daylight saving has not affected their sleep schedule at all.
“El cambio de horario no me afecta en nada,” said junior Lot Zaragoza.
Some students state that their sleep schedule has not changed, nor has their day-to-day lifestyle changed, while others state that their entire routine has changed since daylight saving started.
“Desde el cambio de horario mi rutina cambió mucho,” said junior Mateo Ortiz Navez.
