Le Moyne College students eagerly anticipate the arrival of spring break, and this year’s will coincide with the annual ritual of Daylight Saving Time (DST) adjustment. On Sunday, March 10, at 2 a.m., the clocks spring forward – marking the commencement of DST and the beginning of shorter nights and longer days.
In anticipation of the mid-semester break, we were curious about how DST affects Le Moyne and its student population.
We asked Justin Enser, a freshman at Le Moyne, about his thoughts on DST. Enser stated that “gaining sleep is awesome and losing it sucks”. When asked about how it affects his daily life, Enser said that DST only affects him for the first week after its occurrence.
Another freshman, Lucy Catalano, had similar thoughts about the event. “I like it,” she stated and continued on to mention how obtaining more daylight hours is important to her.
Our next interview was with Sean Terry, a senior at Le Moyne. Upon our query, he replied “I don’t really pay attention to it that much”. After asking him to elaborate on his answer, Sean simply restated that he did not care about DST at all, stating it did not affect him in any way.
Finally, we asked Brittany Betts, a senior Psychology major at Le Moyne, for a quasi-expert perspective on the situation. When asked if she thought DST impacted students negatively she said, “Yes, it possibly makes students lose motivation and possibly can lead to depression.”
She said this is not proven but is most likely a side effect. All of those interviewed said they did not notice depression or loss of motivation to be directly caused by DST in their daily lives. Brittany also stated that she doesn’t even notice a gain or loss of sleep, adding that she has a personal dislike for “springing back” in the fall because it gets darker much quicker in the evenings.
As such, while opinions on Daylight Savings Time and the changes it brings may vary among students, its alignment with the beginning of this year’s Spring Break does lessen the abruptness of the shift. The Spring Break begins at the end of classes on Friday the 8th, and classes resume Monday the 18th.
