Bottom line is, there just isn’t enough daylight to go around 4 months a year. However its allocated will still suck in some way.

Maine moving without the rest of the east coast, particularly NY, just makes TV and travel scheduling a bear, and it’ll still be dark and cold.

The other 8 months kick ass here. Just gotta tough out the winter.

Who watches live TV anymore? /s

Newfoundland is half an hour ahead of Atlantic time and the maritimes are an hour ahead of Eastern time, but planes aren’t falling out of the sky. People adapt. I do it all the time when I travel. Some states are even split up into multiple time zones or have different daylight savings time dates.

I’d prefer more daylight later in the day.

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I used to live in Michigan. One of the best things about it was being on the western edge of the Eastern timezone, it would be light out until about 9:30 at night in the summer and stay light until at least 5:00 in the winter (even with switching the clocks back).

I’ve always thought Maine should do the same, being on the western edge of Atlantic time would be so much better. You guys would love it if you tried it.

I like it. I always pretty much stay on the same schedule so being up and at work an "hour early"in the winter is perfect for my job 🤷‍♂️

Living on the edge of a time zone creates complexities for those who go back and forth over the line. For those not commuting south or west it’s not much of an issue. Maine is both very far east in ET and pretty far north. Portland gets 9 hours of daylight in December and 15.5 hours in June (not counting twilight). December sunrise would be after 8 am which creates its own set of problems. The article points out how going to AT is great for some and not for others.

>I’d prefer more daylight later in the day.

And some people prefer more daylight earlier in the day. As u/JStanton617 pointed out there just isn't enough daylight to go around for four months of the year. The blanket is too short!

And how dark is it in the morning?

As much as I'm going to hate the sun setting early this afternoon, having it come up only a little bit after I woke up today was a nice change. You're definitely right that there's no magic clock setting to fix the problem, all we can do is shift it around.

Agree, but we shouldn’t have to go back and forth with time changes.

Yeah, sporting events like baseball/hockey that typically start at 7pm would start at 8pm in that instance, not to mention prime time NFL games starting at 9pm. Not a huge deal in the big scheme of things but a pain in the ass for us sports fans that would make following teams a bit more difficult.

Edit: Yeah, I don't get the down votes for this comment. Is it not literally an issue sports fans in Maine would have to deal with? Why would someone downvoted that?

My guess is within 15 years New England will be on Atlantic Time

I think everyone understands that the darkness happens at some point, just most people would prefer it dark in the morning instead of early evening

Better yet, newfoundland time, just to mix things up a bit.

New England should go Atlantic time

When I lived in SWH, in the summer the sun was literally way up. Blinding sunlight at 4:50 am. People showed up to work at 7 and were gone at 3. People were basically following ADT, whatever the clocks said.

We tried it in the '70s. People grew to hate it. And disturbing the circadian rhythm can have health consequences:

>Experts at the Sleep Research Society say daylight-saving time can delay our bodies' natural melatonin production, making it harder to get to sleep. The stress hormone cortisol is also dysregulated by the shift, which can change metabolism and influence inflammation.

But hey, if we get to shop later I guess it's all for the best.

We should try it again. It’s been 50 years. Totally different generation and I feel it would fit a lot more now. I don’t give a damn about “shopping later,” so that’s weird of you to say. I’m sick of it being dark at 430pm. It’s ridiculous. There’s no need for DST. Period.

Agreed. It’s stupid. Back in the day it made sense but we don’t need it anymore.

Wah

Dunno why you’re being downvoted because it makes perfect sense. Idk why we aren’t there yet.

Is it not an issue sports fans in Maine would have to deal with in this scenario? You might not care but there are people who do.

I was merely commenting that it woukd be an aspect of this type of change that I wouldn't enjoy.

Let's just end daylight savings tho. We don't need to do all this complicated shit.

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>I don’t give a damn about “shopping later,” so that’s weird of you to say.

It's one of the most common rationales they give for DST.

>It’s ridiculous.

But it's okay to have dark winter mornings?

>There’s no need for DST

Well then it will be darker an hour earlier in the summer as well!

Also for most working people it’s dark when they get up anyway. I myself would much rather it be darker in the mornings so I can sleep a little later on the weekends.

Yeah it really doesn’t need to be light out until 9pm either

Nope, nope, fuck no. Just keep this time all year round. Much prefer daylight in the morning than in the afternoon. Who the fuck really needs light at 9PM in the summer?

IIRC there has been a lot of talk about this, going to Atlantic Time permanently. I think the main reason NH hasn't done it yet is because ME hasn't yet.

If ME and NH do it, it wouldn't surprise me if VT wasn't far behind.

MA, RI, CT would be next.

Daylight savings time is completely pointless

Just to clarify, we just LEFT daylight savings time. Now we are on standard time. Simply eliminating daylight savings doesn’t help with the early darkness.

Aren’t we done going back and forth? According to the Sunshine Protection Act we change the clocks forward one more time and then that’s it. Maine is permanently on DST

This hasn’t been signed into law yet. https://thehill.com/homenews/3720344-time-is-running-out-for-house-to-pass-permanent-daylight-saving-bill/amp/

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As a lifelong resident of the Northeast, I don’t understand what all the big deal is about this. This is how it’s been for a while and I don’t see the problem with it. Why are they complaining now?

I moved from Maine to western MI 6 years ago and the late sunrises and sunsets still throw me. I keep wishing we’d switch to central time. 🤣

Until Sunday the sun wasn’t rising until 8:15ish here. I’m in west MI so it’s the complete opposite of the time zone.

Western Mainer here who works across the border in New Hamster.

So i'd have to leave at 9:30 in order to get to work at 8:30? I dunno'... Makes my head hurt!

I disagree that most people would prefer it dark in the morning.

If it means Monday Night Football would be on at 8pm in New Brunswick then by all means yes, go for it Mainers!

People who don't get up early is my theory. I'd much rather not be driving to work in the pitch black

Staying on this time all year would mean sunrise at 4:00am or earlier across most of the state in the summer. Obviously it’s personal preference, but I’d prefer light at 9:00pm over 4:00am.

Same here. With year-round standard time, the sun would set before 7pm except for a short window in June and July. Post-8pm sunsets are one of the nicest parts of summer in New England.

Oh no, sports would start later…

Yes. They would. Which would suck for fans and kids who like to catch the games as well as sports bars where people go to watch said games. Games that now start at 7 already end around 10pm, while NFL games go to 11pm. Shifting those back an hour would suck!

As I said, it's not a critical, society crumbling issue, but it certainly would make it difficult for folks that have to get up to go to work to follow their teams. That's all I'm pointing out.