There are some traditions we really can abandon

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Still feeling a little groggy this morning? Are your eyes wanting to close to get just one more hour of sleep?

Clocks “sprang forward” last weekend, once again reminding all of us how precious our Saturday night sleep is, and wonder why we continue through this whole biannual practice of shifting our clocks forward and backward, depending on what time of year it is.

Technology today has pretty much automated this process for us, so no more showing up to work Monday morning an hour late — or an hour early — because someone forgot to change the alarm clock. But the terrible disruptions to our already terrible sleep schedules have not changed, and don’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

Several states have opted out of daylight saving time. But what many states really want instead is to keep daylight saving and toss standard time out the window.

In order to do that, however, it literally takes an act of Congress, and Congress hasn’t been too keen to oblige. Except for a few Republicans out of Florida of all places. The two senators there, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, as well as Sarasota congressman Vern Buchanan, are pushing for Congress to change U.S. Code that would make our current daylight saving time “standard time.”

In the meantime, states like Hawaii and Arizona (as well as territories like Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have ditched daylight saving to save its residents the irritation (and sleep deprivation) of changing their clocks every fall and spring.

Even some New York lawmakers want to do something about it, but not enough to make a difference. Queens Democrat Clyde Vanel in the Assembly and Milford Republican James Seward in the senate want to form a committee to explore daylight saving time, but have found little traction among their colleagues.

Moving our clocks forward and backward is a time-honored tradition that many believe dates back to the beginning of time. But in actuality, it’s more of a modern practice that gained steam with a nationwide enactment in 1966.

While many might claim there are benefits to moving our clocks — and some might even be accurate — it’s impossible to discount that there also are major drawbacks to such a practice, and those cons seemingly far outweigh the pros.

For the most part, however, this is about people not wanting to change something they see as traditional, as something we’ve always done.

But then again, we always had to trudge out in the snow in our backyards in the middle of the night to find the outhouse, and the moment indoor plumbing was invented, we tossed that “tradition” aside before anyone had a chance to blink.

This is another tradition we should abandon. Your tired eyes will be thankful.

Daylight Saving Time,

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