Script: 

Hi, today is November 3. It is starting to get cooler here in Toronto. Daytime temperature is around 14-18 degrees and nighttime temperature is under 10 degrees. I love this weather. The leaves are changing colours too.

I wake up around 7am, and it is still dark at 7. In Canada, we utilize Daylight Saving Time. Daylight saving time began on March 13 this year, and ends this coming Sunday, November 6. We have to move the clock backwards by one hour. The time “changes” at 2 a.m. When I say change, I mean the new time is in effect.

Ever since I was a kid, I have always wondered, what happen to midnight TV programs and radio shows when one hour is missing? I asked my parents, I asked everyone. Nobody gave me an answer because nobody cared and they didn’t know. I always ask people this kind of weird questions, weird to them, but not to me. It is a legitimate question. The missing TV show or radio show doesn’t concern me, since I have long fallen asleep at 2 am, but I still want to know.

After the time change, 7am will become 6am. There will be a 14 hour time difference, instead of 13 hours between Toronto and Japan, where most of my students are.

What is Daylight Saving Time? It is the practice of advancing clocks (typically by one hour) during warmer months so that darkness falls at a later clock time. That means we get more daylight. In the winter months, we set the clocks back by one hour in autumn to normal time.

It doesn’t make sense to me at all. In the summer, even if we don’t advance the clock, the days are already long. It is still bright at 8pm.  After we change the clocks to Daylight Saving time, it starts to get dark around 9pm. It is ridiculous. We have 15 hours of daylight. Who needs so much sunlight? How can kids fall asleep when the sun in still shining?

In winter, sunrise is about 8am and sunset is around 5pm. The days are very short. We don’t get enough sunlight and therefore not enough vitamin D, and many people get depressed in the long Canadian winter. So, shouldn’t we change the clocks in a way where we get more sunlight in the winter and less in the summer? It makes more sense, right?

Let me know what you think.

Thank you for listening.