Daylight-saving time during whole year? Some say yes

The 47-year-old Orlando man is circulating a petition to stretch daylight-saving time -- which starts in April and ends in October -- throughout the year.

He thinks the 9-to-5 workforce could use the extra daylight after work in the fall and winter.

"I just got sick and tired of saying, 'Oh, I hate that when it gets dark at 5 o'clock,'" said Evans, Orange County's cable franchise coordinator, who'd like to spend the extra hour with his dogs.

Now, he can't take his tiny dogs to the park because he can't see them. It's too dark.

With about 1,000 signatures, Evans hopes to bolster enough support -- at least 30,000 registered voters -- to persuade a Sunshine State lawmaker to sponsor legislation to make daylight-saving time a year-round proposition. He started e-mailing friends and acquaintances, including Bonita Springs City Attorney Audrey Vance, with the proposal this month.

She didn't sign. "Personal preference," Vance said.

She likes the way it is. Many other Southwest Floridians agree, as much of the region's construction and agricultural economy depend on early-rising workers who need morning daylight to work.

Benjamin Franklin conceived daylight-saving time in an 1784 essay as a way to conserve energy. The United States started advancing clocks one hour in 1918 during World War I.

During World War II, the U.S. adopted a year-round daylight-saving scheme, calling it "War Time." But after 1945, time grew haphazard. Towns and states decided independently when they wanted daylight-saving time to begin and end until an act made it more consistent in 1966. However, some counties and states have opted not to use daylight-saving time.

But Southwest Florida construction industry officials say extending daylight-saving time and shifting a sunlight hour to the night would stunt efficiency.

"If it's still 7 by the clock, but it's dark, you're just going to end up losing productivity. You're going to be constantly changing your start times," said Mike Hoyt, project manager for The Lutgert Cos., a Southwest Florida development company.

"If he wants to be productive, start a little earlier and go home a little earlier," he said referring to Evans. "The guy's sleeping in to noon practically, for us."

Safety for children and the workers is another benefit to the early morning sun.

"It kinds of spooks me out to come around the corner and see the kids standing there in the dark. In that sense, I'd rather have it lighter earlier," said Bonita Springs Mayor Paul Pass, a father of three.

Sleep patterns can be disrupted by daylight-saving time's beginning and end. While an extra hour of sleep does most people good, a lost hour in the spring does many people a little bad, said Dr. Martin Cohn with the Sleep Disorders Center of Southwest Florida in North Naples. Traffic accidents slightly increase the day after springing forward in April, he said.

"One hour less sleep can introduce a fatigue factor."

The early evening darkness in winter months can make people groggy earlier, he said. Light and dark are zeitgebers, or time cues. When light hits the eye, hypocretins, or chemicals allowing people to stay awake, are released near the brain's base.

The biological effects of light and dark are why waking up when it's pitch-black may be so difficult for some.

"Nobody likes getting up before daylight," said Allen Walburn, 53, a Naples charter boat captain, who wakes up when its dark before daylight-saving time ends to get his trips out by 7 a.m.

"It really wouldn't work for us. We'd have the sun coming up at 8 or 8:30 in the morning. I think it's kind of ridiculous idea," he said. "I'd rather see a see standard time all year because you can't function at our normal daylight-saving."

There's also an e-mail petition circulating nationally to end daylight-saving time.

But Evans, who says more people are asleep during the early morning hours, may have a point.

The California Energy Commission released a 2001 study stating a year-round daylight-saving time may have helped the state better face its electricity crisis.

Some say daylight-saving time also reduces crime and people work later into the day than when it started.

Those are the people forgotten, said Carmen Seward, 73, a lifelong Bonita Springs fisherwoman, who often fishes at night when the tides determine fishing is ripe. She'd welcome an extra hour of light at night.

"They make the laws and the rules for the people who work days. There's a lot more people working at nights than the powers that be think. They all work day hours and pretty short ones at that," Seward said.