Mental Accounting & Daylight Savings

We measure time by the movement of countless suns; and they measure time by little machines in their little pockets. Now tell me, how could we ever meet at the same place and the same time?

-Kahlil Gibran

I see this debate about getting rid of Daylight Savings Time or Standard Time or whatever.

RFK Jr. wants to do it and Huberman is citing research.

This reminds me of the concept of Mental Accounting, a Thaler joint from behavioral economics. Some of you will be familiar.

People partition money in their minds subjectively as a means of managing different functions and then they treat these separate mental accounts differently depending on how they are framed.

Meanwhile, and in reality, a dollar is just a dollar, no matter what pile you put it in.

The same is true in this stupid daylight savings debate.

A minute of sunlight is just a minute of sunlight, no matter what you call it.

On any given day of the year, you get the same amount of daylight and the same amount of night time per 24 hour period.

It’s just Mental Time Keeping.

We humans are incredibly adaptive animals. We live and thrive at the Equator and we live and thrive in the arctic circle.

Much more important than knowing what time it says on the little machines in our pockets, is knowing when the sun is rising and when the sun is setting.

Get yourself outside in the morning sunlight no matter what time you call it and move your body. Then go to bed at a decent time and get some sleep at night. You will adjust to 24 hour cycles just fine.

One last thing. 

If you do have difficulty adjusting to things like a sudden one hour shift on a clock, the best thing to do is to focus on improving your health.

This might sound arbitrary, but it is not.

As you improve your health, you become more flexible, adaptive, stress tolerant, and resilient.

You’ll feel great and you won’t care what time it says it is.

Facts.